Abstract
The present study had a dual objective: to verify the existence of profiles of anxious students and to relate the possible profiles with causal self-attributions in the area of mathematics. The sample consisted of 1,730 Chilean children from 9 to 11 years old ( M = 10.05; SD = 1.03). The Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety-Revised and the Sydney Attribution Scale were administered. Four profiles were found by using the latent class analysis: Low Anxiety, Moderate Anxiety, Moderate Anxiety School-type and High Anxiety. The High Anxiety profile tended to attribute its failures more to ability and effort. However, the Moderate Anxiety School-type group showed a greater tendency to attribute its failures to external causes and its successes to effort. The practical implications of these findings for improving the attributional style and the anxiety levels of each profile are discussed.
Highlights
Mathematics skills development is a complex process for many students, even when they have received specialized intervention (Nelson et al, 2018)
It should be noted in this regard that there is a self-report measure called the Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety-Revised (VAA-R; Bernstein & Garfinkel, 1992), which distinguishes between anxiety in the school setting and general anxiety
This study presents the first empirical results on the attributional style in mathematics showed by Chilean children according to their anxiety profile
Summary
Mathematics skills development is a complex process for many students, even when they have received specialized intervention (Nelson et al, 2018). Anxiety is an emotional problem that appears when people manifest chronic worry about unlikely threats and it does not lead to a potential solution (Goleman, 2006) Among these factors, anxiety and causal self-attribution stand out for being considered in one of the most prominent motivational models in educational research: Weiner’s (1985) attribution theory. Each cause can be internal, when it is located within the individual, or external, when it is located outside the person; stable, when it persists over time, or unstable, when it varies over time; and controllable, when the person can modify it, or uncontrollable, when the individual cannot change it In this sense, the attributional style with which math students can experience greater anxiety consists of attributing the successes to external and uncontrollable causes such as luck, and the failures to internal, stable and uncontrollable causes such as lack of ability (Baten et al, 2019; Meece et al, 1990; Ramirez et al, 2018). In light of the aforementioned anxiety conception, whether math students show this attributional style, which implies considering that neither successes nor failures are under their control, it is highly probably that they concern and feel anxiety, due to the impossibility of acting in the face of danger
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