Boys’ visuospatial abilities compensate for their relatively poor in-class attentive behavior in learning mathematics

•In-class attentive behavior is an important predictor of mathematics achievement.•Adolescent boys are less attentive in classroom settings than girls (d = −.34).•Controlling for attentive behavior, boys have advantages in mathematics achievement.•The sex difference in mathematics achievement is fully mediated by spatial abilities. The mathematics and reading achievement of 322 adolescents (159 boys) was assessed in seventh and eighth grades, as were their intelligence, working memory, and spatial abilities. Their seventh- and eighth-grade mathematics and English language arts teachers reported on their in-class attentive behavior. The latter emerged as an important predictor of achievement, but more so for mathematics than for reading. Boy were less attentive in classroom settings than girls (d = −.34) and performed better than expected in mathematics given their level of engagement in the classroom. Boys’ better-than-expected mathematics achievement was related to advantages on visuospatial measures (ds = .28–.56), which fully mediated a sex difference in mathematics (ds = .27–.28) but not in reading achievement, with control of in-class attentive behavior. The results suggest that boys’ advantages in visuospatial skills compensate for lower levels of classroom engagement in the learning of mathematics but not in reading competencies.