The 17th Xi Xian Academic Luncheon, co-organized by IIDPF and the School of Public Finance and Taxation, was successfully held on 16 June 2022 in Conference Room 119, Wenqin Building. Dr Zhang Jing from the School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics gave a keynote speech entitled "Gender Differences in Noncognitive Skill Developments of Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic". The keynote speech was entitled "Gender Differences in Noncognitive Skill Developments of Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The academic luncheon was hosted by IIDPF researcher Dr Wan Qian, and was attended by more than 30 participants, including IIDPF's Executive Associate Director Professor Lu Yuanping, Professor Tian Binbin, Associate Professor Huang Hongwei from the School of Public Administration, and researcher Dr Wan Xin, among other students and faculty.
The COVID pandemic may affect gender differences in adolescents' non-cognitive abilities, an interesting and important issue as the pandemic has swept the world, causing most schools to suspend offline instruction in favour of online courses, and many studies have shown that the cessation of offline instruction has a negative impact on students' cognitive development, but there is a relative lack of research on the impact on students' non-cognitive abilities. In this research context, Dr. Jing Zhang used two datasets that were designed to complement each other and found that girls' non-cognitive skills were statistically significantly lower compared to boys, due to the higher levels of stress that girls experience during the epidemic and the lower levels of social support that girls receive from their classroom peers during online instruction.
Dr. Zhang Jing gave a fascinating lecture to the students and teachers in the audience, and at the same time provoked deeper thoughts on the research topic. There was a lively discussion session in which students and teachers spoke extensively on issues around data, models and impact mechanisms. Dr Zhang's researchis of great significance to the research on COVID's impact on the development of gender inequality.