Math Anxiety and Math Achievement in Primary School Children: Longitudinal Relationship and Predictors

The main objective of the presentation is the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement in young children. Data from 254 Polish children collected at three time points (the beginning of the first grade, the end of the first grade, the end of the second grade) were analyzed to answer two research questions about math anxiety and math achievement. The first goal of the study was to test whether math achievement predicts math anxiety (Deficit Theory), math anxiety predicts math achievement (Debilitating Anxiety Model), or math anxiety and math achievement have reciprocal relationships (Reciprocal Theory). Several relevant variables were considered as controlled variables: gender, general anxiety, fluid intelligence, verbal and visuospatial working memory, and symbolic and non-symbolic numerical representations. The second goal of the study was to establish additional predictors of math anxiety and math achievement in early primary school. The following variables were used: fluid intelligence, verbal and visuospatial working memory, symbolic and non-symbolic numerical representations, gender, and general anxiety. During presentation I will discuss educational implications and further research directions.

Dr. Monika Szczygieł works at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. Her scientific interests focus on numerical cognition, mainly the cognitive and affective nature of math anxiety and symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude processing. She is particularly interested in sources of math anxiety and its durable effect on math performance and in the significance of ‘number sense’ for math performance when general cognitive processes are controlled for.