Math achievement is one of the strongest predictors of academic success and career attainment. While research has focused on cognitive factors that relate to math achievement, a growing body of literature suggests that affective factors like math anxiety also relate to math achievement. The field of math anxiety has expanded to recognize that not…

Although the impacts of math anxiety, attitude toward math, and math self-efficacy on math achievement have been well-defined in the relevant literature, the interrelations among these predictors to explain math achievement are understudied. This study examined the structural relationships among math achievement, math anxiety, math self-efficacy,…

Math performance is negatively related to math anxiety (MA), though MA may impact certain math skills more than others. We investigated whether the relation between MA and math performance is affected by task features, such as number type (e.g., fractions, whole numbers, percentages), number format (symbolic vs. nonsymbolic), and ratio component…

Math-anxious people consistently underperform in math. The most widely accepted explanation for "why" this underperformance occurs is that math-anxious people experience heightened anxiety when faced with math, and this in-the-moment anxiety interferes with performance. Surprisingly, this explanation has not been tested directly. Here,…

The adult participants in this study range in age from 20 to 50 years. They describe their remembered experiences of learning mathematics in both primary and secondary education. None of the participants achieved the qualifications in mathematics which would allow them access to higher education. They are now studying mathematics after many years…

Providing training for women intending to re-enter or increase their employment options in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields must address women's mathematics anxiety. Addressing women's anxiety is essential given that mathematics is often viewed as the foundation upon which the other STEM careers are built. This…

We investigated the relations between self-reported math anxiety, task difficulty, and pupil dilation in adults and very young children during math tasks of varying difficulty levels. While task difficulty significantly influenced pupillary responses in both groups, the association between self-reported math anxiety and pupil dilation differed…

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of some affective constructs, such as self-efficacy (SE), mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics interest (MI) on algebraic problem solving achievement (PSA). The sample of the study consists of 400 class IX secondary school students in Morigaon district of Assam, India. The instruments…

Understanding young children's attitudes towards mathematics provides insights into their lived mathematical experiences. It has long been recognized that attitudes towards mathematics have a profound influence on mathematical achievement. Despite the considerable amount of research into students' attitudes toward mathematics, limited research has…

In this study, we explored the effect of delayed enrollment in college-level mathematics upon entry into a 4-year university for students who were not placed into remedial mathematics (i.e. college ready). For students who attempted a mathematics course, delayed enrollment in mathematics did not have an effect on GPA, graduating within 6-years or…

This study investigates the correlates of statistics anxiety. Considering that statistics anxiety and spatial anxiety have been separately correlated with related constructs (e.g., mathematics anxiety, academic performance, etc.), the possibility that spatial anxiety plays a role in statistics anxiety is explored. When facing statistics or…

Math anxiety is a negative affective reaction in situations concerning mathematics and is related to poor math performance and a lower mathematical self-concept. Gender differences appear in math anxiety even though gender differences in math abilities are non-existent or minimal in effect size. In the present study, gender and age differences in…

Background: The debate on using concrete versus abstract materials in learning mathematics has been longstanding. For decades, research has focused on the physical characteristics of materials when defining them as concrete or abstract. Aims: This study extends the field by proposing a two-dimensional classification, which defines materials as…

Background: Research has shown that mathematics anxiety negatively correlates with primary school mathematics performance, including fraction knowledge. However, recently no significant correlation was found between fraction arithmetic performance and state anxiety measured after the fraction task. One possible explanation is the natural number…

Students with math anxiety experience low self-efficacy and high levels of distress when asked to approach math tasks and concepts, which often results in poor course performance. Despite the wealth of research on this construct, relatively little is known about how math anxiety impacts math achievement in college-aged students or what types of…