Boys Beat Girls At A level? Err, No - Again + Impact Of Abuse On Loneliness Mental Well-Being Of Separated Fathers

'Statistics can be used to mislead as well as to inform. In this respect they do not differ from words.'

By William Collins: It’s almost as if someone somewhere wants boys’ comparatively poor performance in education to be swept under the carpet.

Following the announcement of this year’s A Level results, the headline in many news outlets was “Boys score more top A-level grades than girls”, for example in The Independent and many other places.

That statement is false.

This is a perennial phenomenon, see for example 2017’s post Boys Beating Girls in A-Levels? – Err, No | The Illustrated Empathy Gap. It wasn’t true then either.

Here are the facts.

It is true that, as a percentage of those who took A Levels, a larger percentage of boys were awarded the top A* grade (9.9% compared with 9.1% of girls). But that is because a substantially larger number of girls take A Levels. Actually, 40,203 A* grades were awarded to boys and 43,354 were awarded to girls. So the correct statement is “Girls score more top A* grades than boys”: 8% more in fact.

Combining the top A* and A grades, 28.4% of boys taking A Levels were awarded these grades compared to 28.2% of girls. But the absolute numbers were 115,330 to boys and 134,350 to girls (i.e., 16% more to girls).

• 17% more A Levels were awarded to girls than to boys.
• 8% more A* Grades were awarded to girls than to boys.
• 21% more A Grades were awarded to girls than to boys.
• 33% more B grades were awarded to girls than to boys.
• 20% more C grades were awarded to girls than to boys.

Statistics can be used to mislead as well as to inform. In this respect they do not differ from words. Whether any presentation of statistics informs or misleads depends upon the honesty and/or competence of the author (and the occasional honest blunder).

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The Impact of Intimate Partner Abuse on the Loneliness and Mental Well-Being of Separated Fathers in Wales

By William Collins: The above title is that of a journal paper just published – see the first listed paper here Partner Abuse | Springer Publishing. It’s behind a pay wall so find the draft preprint here.

The paper is based on data from the charity Both Parents Matter Cymru.

I note the same issue has some big names as authors, including Louise Dixon and Denise Hines. 

The first two issues of this 2025 Volume of Partner Abuse were effectively an update on the famous 2012/13 PASK review, which the latest findings emphatically support and are well worth checking out.

The Abstract of my paper reads,

“The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between partner abuse and measures of distress in nonresident fathers. The impact of partner abuse on women has been widely studied but has been considered less often for male victims. Mental well-being and social/emotional isolation (loneliness) were quantified in this cross-sectional study using validated measures for a cohort of nonresident fathers in Wales. The study population was found to have substantially higher loneliness and lower mental well-being than the general population. Of 15 predictor variables which might potentially have an association with these adverse outcomes, the fathers’ experience of partner abuse was the variable most strongly associated, and its effect size was large and significant. The severity and prevalence of the observed degraded well-being and severe loneliness challenge the notion that partner abuse of men is either relatively uncommon compared with that of women or that it is lacking in a comparable impact.”

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