Math Ability/Performance:
Math Anxiety Abstracts

Includes: The distribution of the subjects by sex and department in 1986 and 1988. (table); Correlated t-tests on 1986/1988 MAS Scores on males, females and groups. (table); Correlated t-tests on 1986/1988 MAS Scores on Maths. Dept. students. (table); Two way analysis of variance of Total Mean Scores in 1986. (table); Two way analysis of variance of Enjoyment Mean Scores in 1986. (table); Two way analysis of variance of Freedom from Fear Mean Scores in 1986. (table)

A study was conducted in a women's college to determine if there exists a correlation between women's attitude towards math and their choice of career. A questionnaire which consisted of career interest questions and math attitude items was administered to incoming freshmen batches in 1985, 1986 and 1987. Results showed a high correlation between math confidence and choice of a physical science career. On the other hand, previous knowledge in math proved to be insignificant. These results point to the importance of cultivating positive attitudes towards mathematics learning.

From the article: Our study has revealed that secondary school children experience math anxiety (MA). Importantly, we controlled for Text Anxiety (TA) which is typically not controlled for in MA studies. Girls showed higher levels of MA than boys and high levels of MA were related to poorer levels of mathematics performance. As well as potentially having a detrimental effect on ‘online’ mathematics performance, past research has shown that high levels of MA can have negative consequences for later mathematics education. Therefore MA warrants attention in the mathematics classroom, particularly because there is evidence that MA develops during the primary school years. Furthermore, our study showed no gender difference in mathematics performance, despite girls reporting higher levels of MA. These results might suggest that girls may have had the potential to perform better than boys in mathematics however their performance may have been attenuated by their higher levels of MA. Longitudinal research is needed to investigate the development of MA and its effect on mathematics performance.
This article contains a substantial list of references.

Includes: Typical sex difference socialization model for performance in mathematics. (chart); Items from parents', children's questionnaire, lambda model coefficients. (table); Sex differences in performance, grades 5-8. (table); Model representing the effects of sex on math anxiety. (chart); Structural coefficients of gender effects on parents, children, teachers. (table); Enrollment in various high school courses, 1986-87. (table); Gender differences in high school performance. (table)

From the article: Two studies were conducted to examine gender differences in trait (habitual) versus state (momentary) mathematics anxiety in a sample of students (Study 1: N = 584; Study 2: N = 111). For trait math anxiety, the findings of both studies replicated previous research showing that female students report higher levels of anxiety than do male students. However, no gender differences were observed for state anxiety, as assessed using experience-sampling methods while students took a math test (Study 1) and attended math classes (Study 2). The discrepant findings for trait versus state math anxiety were partly accounted for by students’ beliefs about their competence in mathematics, with female students reporting lower perceived competence than male students despite having the same average grades in math. Implications for educational practices and the assessment of anxiety are discussed.

This is a report on the authors' meta-analyses on the effects of gender differences in attitudes on mathematics performance. On the whole, effect sizes were small. Some differences in attitudes were observed and the differences seemed to increase with the age of the students. Includes: Gender differences on scales of math attitudes/affect as function of age. (table); Magnitude of gender differences on other scales of math attitudes/affect. (table); Gender differences in mathematics attitudes/affect, combining scales. (table); Gender differences in mathematics anxiety as function of selectivity. (table); Studies of gender differences in mathematics attitudes and affect. (table)