Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale Research Articles

Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of Modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale for Children in Serbia

Previous research of math anxiety (MA) was largely concerned with the population of high school students. Although there are findings on the existence of MA at early primary school age, a very small number of questionnaires or scales, which have been validated in several cultures and can be used in research with children of this age, have been detected in the literature. The aim of this research was the psychometric evaluation and short validation of Modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (mAMAS) for children in Serbia. The study was conducted on a sample of 301 early elementary school students from Serbia (mean age 8.79 years). The results of the research indicate a 2-factor solution of this scale. Both components, Math Evaluation Anxiety and Math Learning Anxiety, have satisfactory reliability coefficients and negative relations with math grades. Additionally, there were no detected gender differences on these measures. IRT analysis indicates that both components show satisfactory psychometric properties and all of the items show significant contributions to their respective scales. Both scales exhibit similar properties in that they offer precise discrimination of respondents with average and higher MA levels, which is encouraging as the scale could be used as a screening tool for children who experience problems with MA.

Relationship between Math Anxiety and Perception of the Utility of Geometry in Primary Education in Prospective Teachers

Math Anxiety not only plays an important role in the academic performance of students but also has a significant influence on the methodology adopted by teachers. In this study, we examine the relationship between the levels of Math Anxiety of a group of prospective teachers and their opinions about the importance of Geometry in Primary Education. Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) was applied to 152 students of the Primary Education Degree, along with open-ended questions on their opinions about the role of Geometry in Primary School. An internal consistency check and a factorial analysis were performed on AMAS data to obtain factors Math Learning Anxiety (MLE) and Math Evaluation Anxiety (MEA). The responses from the open-ended questions were categorized and classified into procedural or relational reasons. Results indicate a biased conception about what Geometry teaching should be. Procedural reasons are related to higher levels of Math Anxiety, being the MLE factor more correlated than MEA. Conversely, relational reasons are related to lower levels of such anxiety. Not all the reasons were correlated at the same level, and no differences between genders were observed in the reasons alleged. Results suggest that emotional factors in prospective teachers should be taken into account as they can induce a bias in their future didactic strategies.

Cognitive Appraisals, Achievement Emotions, and Motivation towards Learning Mathematics among Lower Secondary Students

Guided by the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we examined the relationship between cognitive appraisals (i.e. self-efficacy and task value), learning anxiety, test anxiety, enjoyment and motivation towards learning mathematics among 302 students in their first year of lower secondary school in Uganda. Students were randomly selected from four urban schools located in Central and Western Uganda. Data were collected using several subscales from the Attitudes towards Math Inventory, the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale, and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and analysed by structural equation modelling in Mplus 7.4. Results indicated a significant contributions of students’ cognitive appraisals towards enjoyment and anxiety for math. Additionally, enjoyment mediated the relationship between students’ cognitive appraisals and learning motivation. Several ways are discussed of strengthening students’ self-efficacy and task value as early as the first year of lower secondary school for higher enjoyment and motivation for learning maths.

Norms and validation of the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) for Polish adolescents and adults

The Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) is one of the most popular instruments measuring math anxiety (MA). It has been validated across several linguistic and cultural contexts. In this study, we investigated the extent of administration method invariance of the AMAS by comparing results (average scores, reliabilities, factorial structure) obtained online with those from paper-and-pencil. We administered the online version of the AMAS to Polish students. Results indicate that psychometric properties of the AMAS do not differ between online and paper-and-pencil administration. Additionally, average scores of the AMAS did not differ considerably between administration forms, contrary to previous results showing that computerized measurement of MA leads to higher scores. Therefore, our results provide evidence for the usefulness of the AMAS as a reliable and valid MA measurement tool for online research and online screening purposes across cultures and also large similarity between administration forms outside an American-English linguistic and cultural context. Finally, we provide percentile and standard norms for the AMAS for adolescents and adults (in the latter case for both online and paper-and-pencil administration) as well as critical differences for the comparison of both subscales in an individual participant for practical diagnostic purposes.

Faktorska struktura i konvergentna validnost upitnika matematičke anksioznosti za učenike srednjih škola

This paper examines the characteristics of the Math Anxiety Questionnaire for high school students. The research presented here aimed to establish the factor structure of the questionnaire and its convergent validity. The research sample consisted of 514 high school students (45.3% male) from Serbia whose average age was 16.7 years. The instruments used in the research were the Serbian adaptation of the Math Anxiety Questionnaire, as well as the Mathematics Motivation Scale and the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale, which were used to validate the questionnaire. Mathematics achievement was operationalized as the average grade in mathematics at the end of the first term and at the end of the school year. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis suggest the existence of two dimensions of math anxiety: Anxiety and Negative Emotional States. Both dimensions are negatively correlated with Interest, Satisfaction, Usefulness, as well as mathematics achievement, while a positive correlation was detected between these two dimensions and Lack of Motivation for Learning, as well as math anxiety accompanying studying and knowledge evaluation. The math anxiety questionnaire was found to be an adequate and valid instrument for use with high school student populations, and can therefore prove useful to mathematics teachers, psychologists and educationalists in their practical work and advisory work with vulnerable student groups.

Math anxiety, intelligence, and performance in mathematics: Insights from the German adaptation of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS-G)

Math anxiety (MA) affects students in various countries and across educational levels. Here, we first evaluated a German adaptation of Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS-G). The AMAS-G was administered to 341 university students as part of a larger test battery, including the assessment of intelligence facets (numerical, figural, verbal) and indicators of math performance (arithmetic fact retrieval, arithmetic procedures, higher-order mathematics). The AMAS-G turned out to be a reliable and valid tool to assess MA. We then further aimed to elucidate the link between MA and math performance by controlling for intelligence differences. Numerical intelligence mediated the relationship between MA and all three indicators of math performance. However, while the relationship between MA and arithmetic fact retrieval was fully mediated by numerical intelligence, MA remained directly related to arithmetic procedures and higher-order mathematics. Results suggest that students with MA show both lower numerical intelligence and specific deficits in mathematics.

Psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) in Italian primary school children

Given the widespread prevalence of mathematics anxiety (MA) and its detrimental long-term impact on academic performance and professional development, it is essential to develop standardized tools capable of identifying MA as early as possible. One of the scales most often used to assess MA is the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare, & Hunt, 2003). The first aim of the present study was to validate this tool in a large sample of Italian primary school children, to confirm the factor structure of the AMAS and to develop standardized norms that can be used in the clinical field. Moreover, as the relation between MA and gender has been extensively reported in adult samples, a second goal of the study was to test the invariance of the scale across genders.

The Modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale: A Valid and Reliable Instrument for Use with Children.

Mathematics anxiety (MA) can be observed in children from primary school age into the teenage years and adulthood, but many MA rating scales are only suitable for use with adults or older adolescents. We have adapted one such rating scale, the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS), to be used with British children aged 8–13. In this study, we assess the scale's reliability, factor structure, and divergent validity. The modified AMAS (mAMAS) was administered to a very large (n = 1746) cohort of British children and adolescents. This large sample size meant that as well as conducting confirmatory factor analysis on the scale itself, we were also able to split the sample to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of items from the mAMAS alongside items from child test anxiety and general anxiety rating scales. Factor analysis of the mAMAS confirmed that it has the same underlying factor structure as the original AMAS, with subscales measuring anxiety about Learning and Evaluation in math. Furthermore, both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the mAMAS alongside scales measuring test anxiety and general anxiety showed that mAMAS items cluster onto one factor (perceived to represent MA). The mAMAS provides a valid and reliable scale for measuring MA in children and adolescents, from a younger age than is possible with the original AMAS. Results from this study also suggest that MA is truly a unique construct, separate from both test anxiety and general anxiety, even in childhood.

Validation Study of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale: Spanish Adaptation

With growing numbers of Hispanic students enrolling in post-secondary school, there is a need to increase retentionand graduation rates. The purpose of this study was to validate the Spanish adaptation of the Abbreviated MathAnxiety Scale (AMAS). The AMAS was translated and administered to 804 freshman students at a post-secondaryinstitution in Mexico. After data analysis, the measure was found to be valid and reliable. The validated measurecould serve as a predictor for math course grades and retention among Hispanic students at the post-secondary level,and it could allow researchers to study the structure of math anxiety across cultures.

Mathematical Anxiety influences the cortical connectivity profiles in lower alpha band during working memory tasks

Introduction Highly math-anxious (HMA) individuals are characterized by a strong tendency to avoid math, which ultimately undercuts their math competence and forecloses important career paths (Ashcraft, 2002). It is hypothesized that worries and intrusive thoughts associated with math anxiety (MA) reduce working memory resources needed for cognitively demanding math tasks (Chang & Beilock, 2016). However, mental processes that access the memory representations of mathematical knowledge has not been fully uncovered (Ashcraft, 2001). Previous studies indicate that the frontal cortex is dominantly involved in working memory (WM) and more specifically while updating the working memory representations (Smith & Jonides, 1997). Additionally, Klados et. al. 2015 show that higher event-related potential (ERP) measures of HMA subjects are predominantly located at frontocentral sites at cortex, while performing WM tasks. Here, we aim to explore the changes in cortical connectivity profile induced by MA during WM tasks. Methods EEG recordings were measured from 32 adults during performance of WM tasks with two levels of difficulty, 1-back (BT1) and 2-back (BT2) (Klados et al., 2015). According to the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS), half of the participants were selected among the highly math anxious (HMA) students, whereas the other half had low math anxiety (LMA) (Hopko et al., 2003). ERPs were recorded via a Neurofax EEG-1200 system from 57 electrode sites according to a modified international 10/10 system using an Electrocap. Epoch length was 1200 ms including 200 ms prestimulus baseline. Signals were filtered offline between 0.5 and 45 Hz and submitted to an ICA procedure to identify ocular artifact components (Bell & Sejnowski, 1995). These artifact components were filtered with REGICA (Schlogl et al., 2007, Klados et al., 2009, 2011). Resulting waveforms were inspected visually and epochs containing visible artifacts in the first 500 ms post-stimulus were removed. To overcome the impact of varying electrical conductivity among head compartments on functional connectivity analyses (Nolte et. al., 200), the cortical activity was estimated from 28 EEG signals by adopting a cortical dipole model (He & Wu, 1999, Mattia et. al., 2009). Here, we referenced MNI152 template as an average head model. Scalp, cortex, outer- and inner-skull were extracted by implementing the Boundary Element Method (BEM) with 302 nodes (Uscedu, 2016). Finally, a column-norm normalization was used to prevent the linear inverse problem. This way, we obtained a transition kernel from 57 scalp signals to 302 cortical signals. We constructed connectivity matrices based on 302 cortical signals by using Magnitude Squared Coherence (MSC) in upper alpha band (8-10 Hz) (Lithari et. al., 2012, Klados et. al., 2013). Then, we embed these connectivity networks to the “connectivity components” by employing a nonlinear dimensional reduction technique (Coifman & Lafon, 2016). The first component captures the highest variance, i.e. the similarity/dissimilarity of the connectivity patterns of source regions. We used 2-way ANOVA with factors MA (HMA & LMA) and task difficulty (BT1 & BT2) along the first connectivity component. The p-values were adapted by the FDR correction (Benjamini & Hochberg, 1995). Results Fig.1 demonstrates the mixed effect of group by task interaction on the connectivity profiles. There is a significant interaction between MA and task difficulty, that is prominent in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), temporal lobe, left ventromedial PFC, right inferior-parietal lobule (IPL), somatosensory and right motor areas. For each significant region (p(G x T)

Math Anxiety Assessment with the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale: Applicability and Usefulness: Insights from the Polish Adaptation.

Math anxiety has an important impact on mathematical development and performance. However, although math anxiety is supposed to be a transcultural trait, assessment instruments are scarce and are validated mainly for Western cultures so far. Therefore, we aimed at examining the transcultural generality of math anxiety by a thorough investigation of the validity of math anxiety assessment in Eastern Europe. We investigated the validity and reliability of a Polish adaptation of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS), known to have very good psychometric characteristics in its original, American-English version as well as in its Italian and Iranian adaptations. We also observed high reliability, both for internal consistency and test-retest stability of the AMAS in the Polish sample. The results also show very good construct, convergent and discriminant validity: The factorial structure in Polish adult participants (n = 857) was very similar to the one previously found in other samples; AMAS scores correlated moderately in expected directions with state and trait anxiety, self-assessed math achievement and skill as well temperamental traits of emotional reactivity, briskness, endurance, and perseverance. Average scores obtained by participants as well as gender differences and correlations with external measures were also similar across cultures. Beyond the cultural comparison, we used path model analyses to show that math anxiety relates to math grades and self-competence when controlling for trait anxiety. The current study shows transcultural validity of math anxiety assessment with the AMAS.

Female Preservice Teachers and Mathematics: Anxiety, Beliefs, and Stereotypes

The purpose of the current study was to examine if preservice teachers’ (PSTs) mathematics anxiety decreased and if their beliefs and stereotypes changed after they completed their early childhood mathematics methods course. It was hypothesized that by using and modeling concrete materials or manipulatives (Thompson, 1992; Vinson, 2001) and placing a greater emphasis on conceptual understanding (Bursal & Paznokas, 2006), two strategies identified as reducing PSTs’ mathematics anxiety, negative beliefs, and stereotypes that are associated with math anxiety, would diminish. Thirty preservice teachers, all female, participated in this study. Using a qualitative research approach, measures included midcourse evaluations, a draw-a-mathematician task (Mewborn & Cross 2007), the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare, & Hunt, 2003), and anecdotal notes. Although we were encouraged that the math anxiety experienced by our preservice teachers slightly decreased by the end of the semester, it was discouraging to find minimal change of beliefs and stereotypes of mathematicians. This confirms that many preservice teachers enter teacher education programs with well-established images of how to do school, along with entrenched beliefs about mathematics and their ability to do math (Vacc & Bright 1999) and these beliefs are very difficult to change.

Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

Given that the ability to manage numbers is essential in a modern society, mathematics anxiety – which has been demonstrated to have unfortunate consequences in terms of mastery of math – has become a subject of increasing interest, and the need to accurately measure it has arisen. One of the widely employed scales to measure math anxiety is the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare & Hunt, 2003). The first aim of the present paper was to confirm the factor structure of the AMAS when administered to Italian high school and college students, and to test the invariance of the scale across educational levels. Additionally, we assessed the reliability and validity of the Italian version of the scale. Finally, we tested the invariance of the AMAS across genders. The overall findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the AMAS when administered to Italian students.

The Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS): construction, validity, and reliability.

Psychometric properties of mathematics anxiety measures have not adequately been studied. Using a large sample size (N = 1,239), the authors developed an abbreviated math anxiety measure, examined its psychometric properties, and assessed the generalizability of the model across samples. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a nine-item measure and strong internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and good convergent/divergent validity was demonstrated with an independent sample. When administered to a replication sample, indexes suggested an excellent model fit. TheAbbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) may represent a more parsimonious and valid approach to assess mathematics anxiety.

MATEMATIČKA ANKSIOZNOST I POSTIGNUĆE NA RANOM OSNOVNOŠKOLSKOM UZRASTU: KAKO RODITELJI (NE) MOGU DA POMOGNU?

Cilj istraživanja je ispitivanje relacija različitih formi uključenosti roditelja u učenje matematike deteta sa matematičkom anksioznošću i matematičkim postignućem dece ranog osnovnoškolskog uzrasta. Uzorak je činilo 176 učenika (52.3% dečaka), koji pohađaju III i IV razred osnovne škole na teritoriji Srbije, prosečne starosti 9.26 godina, kao i oba roditelja svakog deteta. Primenjena su dva instrumenta – Modifikovana skraćena skala matematičke anksioznosti (sa facetama anksioznosti pri učenju i pri evaluaciji znanja) koju su popunjavala deca, kao i Skala roditeljske uključenosti (sa facetama Pozitivna iskustva, Pomaganje, Očekivanja i Opažene teškoće), koju su popunjavali roditelji. Matematičko postignuće operacionalizovano je kao prosek zaključnih ocena iz matematike sa polugodišta i kraja prethodne školske godine. Rezultati ukazuju na značajan negativan doprinos opaženih teškoća od strane majke i oca matematičkom postignuću deteta, kao i na negativne doprinose pozitivnih iskustava majke matematičkoj anksioznosti pri učenju i pri evaluaciji znanja kod deteta. Očekivanja oca negativno doprinose samo detetovoj anksioznosti pri evaluaciji matematičkog znanja. Rezultati ovog istraživanja pružaju potvrdu nalazima prethodnih istraživanja, ali i praktične implikacije u kontekstu podučavanja deteta od strane roditelja u domenu matematike.