Gustafsson and Blömeke (2018) have analysed the development of achievement in compulsory school in the Nordic countries from the 1960s and found that ‘there is one distinct pattern of change which concerns one country only, and this is the dramatic development of the level of reading literacy in Finland from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s’ (p.401). The same pattern is also found in mathematics. Finland topped the international education rankings after the millennium. Despite falling somewhat since 2006, Finland continues to have a high-performing school system for mathematics, science and reading literacy in PISA and TIMSS. Although Finnish scores are in the top echelon of international comparative studies, exceptionally high Finnish performance exists only among females (Loveless, 2015). Finland is the only country where girls significantly outperform boys in reading, mathematics, science and collaborative problem solving. Educational research has linked Finland’s PISA success to contextual factors: the historical, cultural, societal and political features . No single reason accounts completely for the surprisingly large gender gap in Finland, although Finland is among the most ‘gender-equal’ societies in the world. Much of Finland’s education system was based on equality among genders, with an appreciated early-childhood education by society, a highly regarded teaching profession, a focus on students’ well-being and a focus on whole child development. Today, Finnish and Finland-Swedish citizens have equal status in nearly all Finnish legislation. The division between Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking Finns is not deep, since many Finns are bilingual due to mixed marriages and schools that offer language training in schools in both languages. However, we suspect some cultural differences between Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking Finns that are worthy of investigation due to different cultural attributes among the groups, which manifest in schools.Duckworth and Seligman (2006) found that girls’ superior self-discipline led to a higher grade point average than boys while international comparative studies show differences in differences among Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking Finns. Therefore, we explored the strength of the antecedent factors that are related to gender-based academic self-discipline among these groups. The purpose of this study was to compare antecedent factors of gender-based academic self-discipline among 15–17-year-old Finnish-speaking Finns, Swedish-speaking Finns and Swedes. The study was framed by two research questions:

1. What are the statistical patterns of gender-based differences among Finnish-speaking Finns, Swedish-speaking Finns and Swedes?

2. What are the antecedents of academic self-discipline in a school context among Finnish-speaking Finns, Swedish-speaking Finns and Swedes?

The empirical study was completed in 40 secondary schools located in Sweden (16 schools, 1460 students) and Finland (24 schools, 1231 students), from both Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking locations. Internet usage was one of the explanatory factors. Therefore, we selected schools located in or close to main city areas since city teens are more likely to have full broadband access, the opportunity to engage in the same spectrum of digital activities and develop similar digital habits in both countries. We were not able to secure a sample of all Swedish and Finnish schools from which to draw a random student sample. Instead, we used university colleagues to reach out to schools. A total of 2691 students in general study programmes voluntarily participated. The students were 15–17 years old. Confirmatory factor analysis as used to assess the factor structure. The fit values indicate that the structural models have good fit (see appendix). The structural equation models were constructed to provide a basis for exploring the associations between the exogenous factors and students’ academic self-discipline. Concepts, items: Appreciation for school Item1 ‘I hate school’ [reversed] Item 2 ‘I enjoy school learning’ Look up to teachers Item 3 ‘I look up to teachers who set strict demands regarding discipline and behaviour’ Item 4 ‘I look up to teachers who set high academic standards’ Classroom management Item 5 ‘The students do not listen to instructions from the teacher’ [reversed] Item 6 ‘There is noise and lack of discipline’ [reversed] Item 7 ‘The teacher has to wait a long time for the students to become quiet’ [reversed] Item 8 ‘The students do not manage to work well’ [reversed]) Quality of teacher explanation Item 9 ‘I understand teacher explanations’ Item 10 ‘Teacher explanations make it possible for me to solve difficult problems’ Item 11 ‘It is useful when the teacher goes through what we are to do’ School-internet conflict Item 12 ‘My digital habits are a hindrance to the achievement of my school goals’ Item 13 ‘I lose focus on my school work when I use the PC at home’ Item 14 ‘I lose focus on my school work when I use the PC at school’ Academic self-discipline Item 15 ‘Pleasure-seeking hinders me in carrying out work tasks’ [reversed] Item 16 ‘I experience difficulties in concentrating’ [reversed]) Internet use in school Item 17 ‘How many hours per day do you spend on the internet at school?’

Our study found quite clear gender differences in academic self-discipline, measured by self-reporting data as well as different strengths in the relationships between the variables in the means of these groups. This finding is interesting because issues of gender differences in academic self-discipline have been a controversial issue.Swedish-speaking Finns are manly more similar to the patterns among Swedes than the patterns of Finnish-speaking Finns.The quality of teacher explanation is related more to academic self-discipline among Finnish boys than girls: Finnish boys were more sensitive to good instructional quality than girls. The concept of ‘looking up to teachers’ was more strongly associated with academic self-discipline among Finnish-speaking girls than with boys. Finnish girls were more sensitive to looking up to teachers than boys. the instructional pathways of Swedish-speaking Finnish boys were more like Swedish boys than Finnish-speaking boys. There is a striking difference between the Finnish sample and the Swedish-speaking populations about the importance of instructional quality for boys’ exercise of academic self-discipline. the pathways of looking up to teachers among Swedish-speaking Finnish girls were more like those of Swedish girls than Finnish-speaking girls, while the other pathways were similar. Appreciation for school was more strongly related to academic self-discipline among Finnish-speaking girls (AFS→SD=0.34) than Swedish-speaking Finnish girls (AFS→SD=0.25). the pathways between internet use at school and school-internet conflict on the one hand and internet use at school and academic self-discipline on the other hand were ICT→SIC=-0.21 and ICT→SD=-0.12 among Finnish-speaking Finnish boys, ICT→SIC=-0.12 and ICT→SD=-0.22 among Swedish-speaking Finnish boys and ICT→SIC=0.17 and ICT→SD=-0.04 among Swedish boys. the pathways between internet use at school and school-internet conflict and internet use at school and academic self-discipline were ICT→SIC= 0.22 and ICT→SD= -0.05 among Finnish-speaking Finnish girls, ICT→SIC= 0.06 and ICT→SD= -0.19 among Swedish-speaking Finnish girls and ICT→SIC=0.23 and ICT→SD=0.07 among Swedish girls.

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