Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender

Linval Mitchell; Lois George

doi:10.29333/iejme/12073

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Linval Mitchell ¹ , Lois George ¹ ^*

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¹ The University of the West Indies, Mona, JAMAICA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This quantitative, survey research investigated the prevalence of mathematics anxiety among 62 fourth and sixth grade primary level students (aged nine to 12 years). It also explored the correlation between mathematics performance and mathematics anxiety as well as if there was a significant, statistical difference between the mathematics anxiety of males and females. The data relating to mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance were collected using the modified abbreviated math anxiety scale (mAMAS) and a teacher-made mathematics test, respectively. This data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Mann Whitney U test and Spearman rank order correlation. The results indicated that the prevalence of mathematics anxiety was high among the sample of grade four students while the prevalence rate was considerably lower among the sample of sixth graders. Small, non-significant positive and negative correlations were recorded between mathematics performance and mathematics anxiety for grade four and six students, respectively. Gender differences relating to mathematics anxiety were also non-significant. In light of these mixed findings practical implications and potential directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords

mathematics anxiety
mathematics performance
primary school
gender

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, 2022, Volume 17, Issue 3, Article No: em0692

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073

Publication date: 07 May 2022

Article Views: 2357

Article Downloads: 1765

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Mitchell, L., & George, L. (2022). Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 17(3), em0692. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073

Vancouver

Mitchell L, George L. Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2022;17(3):em0692. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073

AMA

Mitchell L, George L. Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2022;17(3), em0692. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073

Chicago

Mitchell, Linval, and Lois George. "Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2022 17 no. 3 (2022): em0692. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073

Harvard

Mitchell, L., and George, L. (2022). Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 17(3), em0692. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073

MLA

Mitchell, Linval et al. "Exploring mathematics anxiety among primary school students: Prevalence, mathematics performance and gender". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 17, no. 3, 2022, em0692. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/12073