Journal article
Mathematics anxiety: An intergenerational approach
- Abstract:
- This study investigated mathematics anxiety from an intergenerational perspective, by investigating data on 172 primary school children and both their biological parents. This family dataset (n = 516) allowed us to not only replicate previous findings per generation, but, importantly, to explore intergenerational correlations. We found a significant negative association between sixth graders’ arithmetical performance and their mathematics anxiety. Gender differences occurred in each generation: females were more anxious than males about mathematics. Interestingly, these gender differences were not found in actual arithmetical performance. Analyses of our intergenerational data revealed that children’s mathematics anxiety was significantly associated with their mothers’ mathematics anxiety and both their mothers’ and fathers’ educational level. Regression analyses revealed that the significance level of mothers’ mathematics anxiety became borderline when considering mathematics anxiety and educational level of both parents simultaneously. Interestingly, mathematics anxiety as well as educational level of both biological parents was associated, suggesting that mathematics anxiety results from a complex entanglement of nature and nurture. Current intergenerational data suggest a complex familial basis of mathematics anxiety and indicate that the investigation of parental levels of education and mathematics anxiety contributes to the understanding of individual differences in children’s arithmetic performance.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 217.4KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01648
Authors
- Publisher:
- Frontiers
- Journal:
- Frontiers in Psychology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 11
- Article number:
- 1648
- Publication date:
- 2020-07-21
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-06-17
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1664-1078
- ISSN:
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1664-1078
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1114606
- Local pid:
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pubs:1114606
- Deposit date:
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2020-06-24
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Vanbinst et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2020
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2020 Vanbinst, Bellon and Dowker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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