Mathematical Anxiety And Its Influencing Mechanism In Upper Primary School Children

Math anxiety refers to negative affective reaction,a feeling of tension,apprehension,or fear of math learning.The anxious individuals at different ages show negative emotional feature to math learning or math-related knowledge,and it also has an impact on daily life.How can explain negative emotions with math anxiety?A Study showed that genetic factor,personal factor and environmental factor had different effects on the generation and development of math anxiety.However,lots of studies focused on the influencing factors of math anxiety in middle and college students,it was found that single factor had direct or indirect influence on math anxiety.Empirical studies were not clear about the causes of math anxiety in senior grade children,and what was the most direct and sensitive factor about math anxiety in upper grade elementary school children.Therefore,we focused on the heterogeneity and dynamics of the causes(i.e.,risk factors)of math anxiety and further explored psychological mechanism.This study explored the influence factors and mechanisms of various variables on mathematical anxiety from the perspective of personal and environmental factors.This study used the questionnaire methods,a sample of 129 elementary school children in high-grade were followed up for one year from grade four and five entering to grade five and six.Math Anxiety Scale for Children(MASC),Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale-Revised(R-MARS),State Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait(STAI-T),Math Learning Motivation Scale(MLS),Self-Esteem Scale(SES),Short-Egna Minnen av Barndoms Upp-fostran(S-EMBU),Emotional Stroop Task and Working Memory Span Task.Four tests were six months apart,except baseline,Parents' math anxiety and teacher's math anxiety only at baseline,and the other tests are similar In this study,individual factors(math motivation,trait anxiety,working memory,attention bias,grades)and environmental factors(parents/teachers' math anxiety,parenting style)were taken as independent variables,and children's math anxiety was taken as dependent variables.Bayesian factor analysis and cross-lag panel model were used to examine the mathematical anxiety and its influencing mechanism in senior primary school children,and the results were as follows:Cross-sectional evidence results showed,according to the relevant results,7 relevant variables were entered into the model.The top model included three key variables,namely math motivation,mother's math anxiety and trait anxiety.It indicated both personal and environmental factors have an impact on the math anxiety of children in the upper grades of primary school.Moreover,after the model was replaced and deleted,mother's math anxiety can be replaced by the father's math anxiety,that is,both parents' math anxiety can affect the math anxiety of children in the upper grades of primary school;Further discovery,it was concluded that children's math motivation was the most important variable;Longitudinal evidence results showed that math anxiety one-way predicts math motivation.The above results suggest that children's math anxiety is influenced by both individual and environmental factors in upper grades for elementary schools,and revealed math motivation plays an important role in math learning.These findings support the biological—psychological—social model of math anxiety dynamic development.