It is not only performance and the skills acquired that are of great importance within school and teaching, but also the students' attitudes towards the respective subjects. Learners' self-concepts, motivation and emotions are fundamental factors in learning, this is also evidenced by the performance of the students (OECD, 2023). In terms of gender, international studies report that girls are better readers than boys, partly due to differences in motivation and contextual effects. In addition, girls tend to have more positive attitudes towards reading and consider themselves to be more literate than boys (Mullis et al., 2017; OECD, 2023). Several studies identified the following characteristics as the cause for the better grade point averages of girls. Girls have higher self-discipline, self-control and self-regulation (Weis et al., 2013) and a higher interest in school in general (Houtte, 2004), they exert themselves more and work more, while disrupting lessons less (Downey & Vogue, 2004) are less avoidant of work, show less problem behaviour and better social behaviour (DiPrete, 2008). Although the additional effort of girls is mentioned here as the cause of the gender differences, the costs borne by girls are hardly taken into account, therefore the focus of this article is the elaboration of gender differences in reading-related self-concept and reading competencies, taking into account the family background of 15-year-old students in Kosovo. For this purpose, data from the PISA 2018 study are analyzed using regression analysis with the IEA IDB Analyzer. Rather than testing factual knowledge, PISA tests students' ability to apply and connect this knowledge. The study is conducted every three years and covers three areas, reading, mathematics and science, with reading being the focus of the assessment in 2018 (OECD, 2023). The results show that although girls perform better in reading and have a higher reading-related self-concept, even taking into account their family background, this is associated with higher costs for these girls, as they also report greater fear of failure.

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