The Impact Of Math Anxiety On Mathematics Performance Of Primary School Students And The Effect Of School-based Mindfulness Training

Math anxiety is a negative emotion including anxiety,tension and fear when individuals dealing with numbers,using mathematical concepts,studying mathematical knowledge or participating in math exam.The relationship between math anxiety and mathematics performance has always been the focus of the researchers to explore.A lot of researches clearly show that there is significant negative correlation between math anxiety and mathematics performance.Although math anxiety may not be the only variable related to math,but it is still a powerful predictor variable.However,behavioral and psychological-physical researches confirmed that the individual factors(cognitive,emotional,physical,motivation)and environmental factors(social,family)are able to impact students' math anxiety level and mathematics achievement.While many researches discussed the factors from the individual perspective,less studies explore the possible factors of affect the two variables from the perspective of environment.As a result,the first part of this study aimed to verify the relationship between math anxiety and mathematics performance in the primary group and its gender differences.Then,from the perspective of the environmental factors,exploring the influence of parent-child relationship,teacher-student relationship and peer relationship to math anxiety and mathematics performance of students.After that,the present study discussed the effectively way to alleviate math anxiety.Considering the effectiveness and feasibility,we chose mindfulness training as the intervention.Mindfulness training has proven to reduce the anxiety in the mathematics situation and improve math performance.However,past researches focused on adults and teenagers more,few studies have verified mindfulness training's effect on children's math anxiety and mathematics performance.Therefore,the second part of this study tested whether the mindfulness training can effectively alleviate theelementary student's math anxiety and improve math performance.In the Study 1,we used the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale(MAAS),the Family Adaption and Cohesion Evaluation Scales(FACES),the teacher-students relationship questionnaire,peer nomination scale,questionnaire survey was carried out on the primary school students,to explore the relationship between math anxiety and mathematics achievement and environmental factors;Study 2used 2(the experimental group and control group)* 2(before the test and after the test)of mixed experimental design,the MAAS was used before and after the training in the experimental group and control group,to explore the effect of mindfulness training on elementary student's math anxiety and mathematics performance.The results show that(1)primary school students' math anxiety was significantly negatively related to their mathematics performance,and the correlation coefficient is0.14;(2)there is no significant gender difference in the elementary student's math anxiety and mathematics performance;(3)the elementary student's parent-child relationship,teacher-student relationship,and peer relations can significantly influence their math anxiety and mathematics achievement;(4)mindfulness training can effectively ease student's math anxiety.The significance of this study is that,by exploring the relationship between math anxiety and mathematics performance,confirmed that math anxiety's negative influence to mathematics performance was also suitable for pupils in China.And the result of there is no significant gender difference in the elementary student's math anxiety and mathematics performance,provides the theory support for the corresponding point of view.And present study confirmed the social relations(parent-child relationship,the teacher-student relationship,peer relations)are important for children's mathematics learning,indicating that parents and schools should provide enough social support to help children get better mathematics learning experience.In addition,this study also proposed an effective way to alleviate elementary students' math anxiety,namely,mindfulness training,and developed a mindfulness curriculum for primary school students in China,filling the gaps of children's mindfulness training in our country,and provides an important reference for schools which aim to set mindfulness curriculum in the future.