The idea that boys are better at math than girls starts early, with researchers reporting this week that students expressed the gender stereotype in second grade.

 Researchers tested a group of students from first grade through fifth grade and found that girls associated math with boys and boys associated math with their gender by second grade in a study co-authored by two University of Washington psychology professors, Anthony Greenwald and Andrew Meltzoff.

“Our results show that cultural stereotypes about math are absorbed strikingly early in development, prior to ages at which there are gender differences in math achievement,” Meltzoff, who is co-director of the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, said in a statement. “Children have their antennae up and are assimilating the stereotypes exhibited by parents, educators, peers, games and the media,” Meltzoff added.

While there has been debate in the United States about why more women don’t pursue jobs in mathematics, science and engineering, the stereotype may not be universal, according to one of the researchers.

“We didn’t have that stereotype where I grew up,” said Dario Cvencek, who grew up in the former Yugoslavia and is a postdoctoral fellow at the institute. “People there thought that math went with girls just as much as it did with boys.”

UW researchers have a couple of tips for parents:

• Make sure your children are aware of women and girls who do well in math and science. (Marie Curie comes to mind.)
• Have one-on-one conversations with your kids and explain that these stereotypes don’t apply to them.

“Perhaps if we can depict math as being equally for boys and girls, we can help broaden the interests and aspirations of all our children,” Meltzoff said.