CORRELATES OF MATH ANXIETY IN FEMALE COLLEGE FRESHMEN STUDENTS: A PREDICTIVE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of math anxiety to mathematics attitudes, math achievement, mathematics participation and parents' occupation and to ascertain which variables are most predictive of math anxiety.;Data were analyzed using a stepwise multiple linear regression statistical procedure. Results of the regression analysis suggested four variables that are of greatest value in predicting math anxiety in the group of subjects studied: Confidence in learning mathematics, Mathematics as a male domain, Teachers attitude toward mathematics and the Usefulness of mathematics. Findings of the study further suggested that individuals with a high level of math anxiety hold different attitudes toward mathematics and perform less well in mathematics than those who are not math anxious. In general, low math anxious subjects had lower scores on the mathematics attitude scales; the one exception was math as a male domain. These findings reflected low math anxious subjects' more positive attitudes toward mathematics. Furthermore, the data indicated that the professional or non-professional status or math-relatedness of parents' occupations had no significant correlation with the subjects' math anxiety. Results of analysis of the data indicated that as anxiety about mathematics increased, achievement in mathematics decreased for the population studied.;The results of this study warrant the following conclusions: (1) Math anxious female college freshmen have a relatively low level of confidence in their ability to study math effectively, see math as being less useful, are more negatively affected by their perceived teachers' attitudes toward mathematics and viewed mathematics as not necessarily a male domain. (2) If such a group of students were identified, they would be good subjects for inclusion in a program designed to reduce math anxiety so that they might have additional career options open to them.;Three hundred and forty female college freshmen students were given the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Inventory, including a math anxiety scale. A mathematics achievement test was also administered and students were asked to fill out a short questionnaire about their parents' occupation.