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Comparisons between single-sex (SS) and coeducational (CE) schools are often limited in design. Associations between SS schooling and gender cognitions remain especially unclear. We compared gender cognitions in students from SS versus CE high schools. A longitudinal design addressed long-term reciprocal effects, and propensity score matching addressed preexisting (confounding) differences between SS and CE students. During the final year of high school (N = 667) and again following graduation (N = 463), students completed measures of gender salience, gender stereotypes, felt pressure for gender conformity, and exposure to gender equality. Before graduation, SS students were more gender salient about self, reported more exposure to gender equality, and had less pressure for gender conformity. The magnitudes of these SS–CE differences were small but did not change significantly over time. However, gender salience about self did not predict or mediate other gender cognitions as often hypothesized, and there were no differences in gender salience about others or in gender stereotypes. We conclude that SS schooling is related to some gender-related cognitions both prior to and following high school graduation. However, findings are neither consistently supportive nor critical of either type of schooling. SS schooling was positively related to students’ attention to their own gender, but how this attention relates to other gender cognitions may vary across individuals in ways that need further research. Our design innovations and inclusion of debated yet understudied outcomes contribute to a fuller evaluation of SS versus CE schooling by examining long-term development and by expanding the outcomes evaluated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
