This is why girls are happiest at school

A new study shows that there is a clear difference between girls and boys when it comes to well-being at school.

“Girls are happier than boys. This applies both in class and at school in general,” says Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson at NTNU's Department of Psychology.

The researchers questioned 1,620 children aged 6 to 9 in Norway. The average age was 7.5 years, meaning these were youngest children in primary school.

The gender differences are clear.

Safety and well-being

The researchers examined factors such as:

• Do the students have friends at school?
• Do they feel safe at school, in the classroom, and during recess?

The researchers find a clear correlation between well-being and feeling safe.

“We find a significant correlation between well-being and all the questions we asked. Enjoying school and feeling safe at school are strongly connected,” says Sigmundsson.

The correlation is strongest between the question of whether you feel safe in school and whether you feel safe during recess.

The lowest correlation is between whether you have friends to be with at school and how much you like your class.

The researchers measured well-being and safety using a new scale that they developed themselves. They call it the well-being and perceived safety in school scale.

School suits girls better

“It can be said that school is better suited for girls. This may have biological causes, among other things,” says Sigmundsson.

Dopamine is a hormone that is somewhat inaccurately called the 'happiness hormone.' It's secreted by the body when we feel good.

“We know that girls get more dopamine activity through social relationships, through being together. Boys get more dopamine through self-centred behaviour. Boys also have higher testosterone levels so they have more need for activity. Long school days and sitting still do not suit boys,” says the professor.

Change is actually good for everyone

Researchers in Iceland included extra physical activity in addition to passion projects to improve well-being in the classroom. The findings are discussed in the article This helps the youngest children enjoy school more.

In this context, a passion project class is a daily optional school lesson where pupils choose activities based on their own interests in order to strengthen autonomy and motivation.

“My advice is more physical activity and passion class every day in school. That will increase the well-being of all students,” says Sigmundsson.

They have different perceptions of their strengths

There are also gender differences in how much the students like subjects and how well they think they perform.

Reading and science: Girls generally score higher than boys, both in how much they like the subjects and how well they think they perform.

Mathematics: There is no difference in how much boys and girls like the subject. But boys think they are best.

Physical education: Boys like the subject best, but there is no difference in how well girls and boys think they perform.

Those who like reading and those who like physical education otherwise seem to be completely different groups of children.

“We only find a weak correlation between feeling good about reading and physical education,” Sigmundsson says.

Students often become good at the subjects they like

The researchers also talked to the children about how much they liked the subjects and compared this with how they actually performed in these subjects. 

The researchers had a questionnaire for this, while the school conducted the survey.

“Here we found a strong connection between liking subjects and doing well. This was true for in reading, maths, science, and physical education,” says Sigmundsson.

This was not about how they feel they are doing, but how good their results actually were.

Reference: 

Sigmundsson et al. Robust children: exploring engagement with academic subjects, well-being and psychological safety in schoolchildren aged 6–9 years in Norway, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 2025. DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2025.2586675

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Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no

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