Parents' math anxiety and mathematics performance of pre-kindergarten children

A large-scale study on the prevalence of math anxiety in Qatar

BACKGROUND

Math anxiety (MA) is a worldwide appearing academic anxiety that can affect student mental health and deter students from math and science-related career choices.

METHOD

Using the Arabic version of the Modified-Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (m-AMAS), the prevalence of MA was investigated in a very large sample of students (N = 10093) from grades 7 to 12 in Qatar.

RESULTS

The results showed a better fit to the original two-factor model of the m-AMAS (learning MA and Evaluation MA) than to a single-factor solution. This two-factor model was also confirmed in each grade. Notably, the distribution of MA scores was right-skewed, especially for learning MA. Using the inter-quartiles ranges, norms for MA were provided: A score of ≤16 indicates low MA whereas a score of ≥30 identifies high MA. Previous studies conducted in Western countries defined high math-anxious students as those who score above the 90th percentile corresponding to a score of 30 on the m-AMAS. Using this cut-off criterion, the current study found that one-fifth of students in Qatar were highly math-anxious, with a higher proportion of females than males. We also calculated the percentage of participants selecting each response category for each questionnaire item. Results showed that attending a long math class was the context that elicited the highest levels of learning MA. In contrast, having an unexpected math test was the situation that triggered the highest levels of evaluation MA.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of MA might vary across different cultures.

Young children with intellectual disabilities and their mathematical attainments: Do parents' attitudes toward mathematics, home numeracy, and literacy practices matter?

This study explored potential factors of numeracy acquisition in young children with intellectual disabilities (IDs). Those factors are determined to assess parents' academic expectations and home practices that they use with their children daily. The sample consisted of 187 Greek-speaking couples, comprising a total number of 374 parents. All of them had a child with mild IDs aged between 4 and 7 years old. Since Greece is placed among European countries with the lowest median disposable income it is significant to assess the potential effects of each family's socioeconomic status. We employed structural equation modeling to identify potential factors affecting a child's with IDs numeracy outcomes. Analysis of moments structures (AMOS) revealed that there is a good fit for the suggested second-order structural equation model. Results are discussed regarding their practical implications.

Anxiety predicts math achievement in kindergarten children

Introduction

Math anxiety (MA) is an academic anxiety about learning, doing, and evaluating mathematics, usually studied in school populations and adults. However, MA likely has its origins before children go to school. For example, studies have shown that general anxiety (GA) for everyday events is less separable from MA in primary than in early secondary school. This suggests that GA may be a precursor of MA. For this reason, here, we have examined whether GA is already associated with math achievement at the end of kindergarten.

Methods

We tested 488 Hungarian kindergarten children aged 5.7 to 6.9 years (55% girls) and analyzed the effect of GA, sex, and family SES on math achievement in kindergarten children.

Results

Strikingly, confirming results from primary school children, we found that GA negatively correlated with math achievement already in this preschool population. Higher GA levels had a stronger negative effect on girls' than boys' math achievement. However, there were no significant sex differences in math achievement in kindergarten. Additionally, family socioeconomic status was the strongest predictor of math achievement.

Discussion

We speculate that high GA in preschool is a plausible early precursor of later high MA. Early interventions could aim to control GA levels before children start formal schooling.

Longitudinal associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and young children's mathematics attainment

The associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and children's mathematics attainment in early primary school were explored. Initially, parents of preschool children (Mage = 3;11 [years;months]) completed a questionnaire indexing parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and the frequency of preschool home number experiences. The children completed mathematics assessments in their first year (n = 231, Mage = 5;2) and second year (n = 119, Mage = 6;3) of schooling and a mathematics anxiety questionnaire in their third year of schooling (n = 119, Mage = 6;7). A questionnaire indexing the frequency of primary school home number experiences was completed by 119 of the parents in their children's second year of schooling (Mage = 6;0). All indices of parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes predicted children's mathematics attainment in their first school year. These associations were independent of parental mathematics attainment and were not mediated by the frequency of preschool home number experiences. Furthermore, the positive association between preschool home number experiences and children's mathematics attainment was not weaker in the context of high parental mathematics anxiety or negative parental mathematics attitudes. One index of parental mathematics attitudes predicted children's mathematics attainment in their second school year, but this association was not significant when prior attainment was controlled. There was a stronger association between maternal mathematics anxiety and girls' attainment versus boys' attainment. Parental mathematics anxiety did not predict children's mathematics anxiety. The findings suggest that children whose parents have high mathematics anxiety or negative mathematics attitudes are more likely to have lower mathematics attainment in their first year of school. However, the mechanism underpinning this association is not yet established.

Peer network in math anxiety: A longitudinal social network approach

Regardless of age, math anxiety (i.e., adverse affective reactions in situations involving math) is associated with lower math achievement. Previous studies have investigated the role of adult figures (e.g., parents, teachers) in the development of children's math anxiety. However, given the importance of peer relationships during adolescence, we examined friendship selection and social influence on children's math anxiety using longitudinal peer network analyses. Throughout the academic semester, we found that children became more similar to their peers in math anxiety levels but did not form new peer networks based on their levels of math anxiety. These findings highlight the importance of peers' emotional reactions to math, which could influence future academic achievement and career aspirations considerably.

The home numeracy environment and children's math skills: The moderating role of parents' math anxiety

Evidence suggests that parents' math anxiety moderates the association between parents' help in mathematics homework and first graders' mathematics skills. Understanding whether similar associations are evident in younger children, in regard to the home numeracy environment (HNE) is essential, given that early math skills are strong predictors of later academic outcomes, and children's skills prior to kindergarten are fostered principally by their parents. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the association and interaction between the HNE and parents' math anxiety related to preschool children's numeracy performance. Participants were 121 parent-child dyads. Results from hierarchical multiple regression models demonstrated that parents' math anxiety and the HNE, included as separate predictors of children's math skills, were not statistically significant. However, the interaction between HNE and parents' math anxiety was statistically significant, such that the positive association between HNE and children's numeracy skills emerged when parents felt less anxious about math. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for parents' math anxiety when exploring the home influences on children's numeracy skills.

Conceptualizing the factor structure of parents' math anxiety and associations with children's mathematics skills

There is a growing literature examining the association between parents' math anxiety and children's mathematics skills. Previous research has considered parents' math anxiety as a unidimensional construct that primarily focused on parents' experiences doing mathematics themselves. However, this research did not account for parents' experiences when doing mathematics with their children. Thus, there were two goals of the present study: (1) to identify the structure of parents' math anxiety when considering context-dependent situations, and (2) to determine whether parental math anxiety was related to children's early numeracy skills. We conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses using a sample of 155 preschool children (M_age  = 4.20 years, SD = 0.71; 51% female). The best fitting model of parents' math anxiety was a bifactor model, suggesting that parents' math anxiety was best conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. However, structural equation models showed parent math anxiety was not a significant predictor of children's numeracy performance. These findings provide a foundation for understanding parents' math anxiety as multidimensional and raise questions about potential mechanisms that may explain prior work finding mixed relations between math anxiety and children's numeracy performance.