Results suggest that working memory and self-concept could be worth considering when designing interventions aimed at helping students with math anxiety. Longitudinal designs could also be used to better understand the mediational mechanisms that may explain the relationship between math anxiety and math performance.

Título: Ansiedad matemática y su relación con capacidades inhibitorias e inteligencia emocional percibida. Resumen: La ansiedad a las matemáticas es un problema emocional que repercute negativamente en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes en distintos niveles educativos. El presente estudio analiza la relación entre este tipo de ansiedad y ciertos procesos cognitivos y emocionales. En primer lugar se pretendía determinar la relación entre la ansiedad a las matemáticas y ciertas habilidades inhibitorias dirigidas a eliminar o evitar el acceso a la conciencia de pensamientos intrusivos. En segundo lugar, interesaba comprobar la posible relación de la ansiedad a las matemáticas con la propia percepción del estudiante de sus habilidades emocionales. A tal fin se administraron a 187 estudiantes de primer curso del Grado de Psicología diferentes medidas de ansiedad a las matemáticas, a la estadística, de habilidades inhibitorias y de inteligencia emocional percibida. Los resultados mostraron que los estudiantes con puntuaciones más altas en ansiedad a las matemáti-cas presentaban una mayor susceptibilidad a experimentar pensamientos intrusivos, una menor eficacia a la hora de suprimirlos así como puntuaciones inferiores en comprensión y regulación de sus emociones. Los procesos inhibitorios y emocionales estudiados pueden resultar útiles para entender la naturaleza de la ansiedad matemática. Palabras clave: Ansiedad matemática; inhibición; pensamientos intrusivos; inteligencia emocional percibida.Abstract: Math anxiety has been found to be an emotional problem that has a negative effect on students' academic performance across different levels of education. This type of anxiety could be related to certain cognitive and emotional processes. A first objective was to examine the relationship between math anxiety and certain inhibitory abilities responsible of eliminating intrusive thoughts or preventing them access to consciousness. A second aim was to determine the extent in which math anxiety and students' self-perceptions of their own emotional abilities are related. To this end, 187 first-year undergraduate psychology students were administered different measures to assess math anxiety, statistics anxiety, inhibitory abilities, and perceived emotional intelligence. The results showed that students with high math anxiety were more likely to experience intrusive thoughts, were less effective at suppressing these thoughts, and reported lower scores in understanding and regulating their emotions. These cognitive mechanisms and emotional abilities are of relevance to better understand the nature of this type of anxiety.

The present study aimed to investigate the factor structure and degree of measurement invariance of a Spanish adaptation of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) in primary and secondary school students ( N = 1,504 students, 46.08% males, 7-19 years of age). The results of confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the original two-factor structure, although a modified two-factor model with one item loading simultaneously on both factors was better supported. Full measurement invariance was observed across gender, and partial measurement invariance was achieved across educational levels (primary and secondary education). The AMAS showed reasonable internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and convergent validity. These results highlight the utility of the AMAS as a measure of math anxiety in primary and secondary school students whose scores can be compared by gender and educational level.

This study aimed to determine whether math anxiety was related to working memory (WM) updating performance and, specifically, to the retrieval and substitution components of updating. A set of WM updating (WMU) tasks that involve different retrieval and substitution requirements were administered to 114 university students. In addition, participants completed a math anxiety assessment on two occasions: 1-2 weeks before and immediately prior to task administration to increase the likelihood of observing the relationship between math anxiety and updating performance. The results showed a relationship between math anxiety scores and updating performance. Math anxious individuals took longer and made more errors, especially on tasks that required retrieving information from WM. These results suggest that math anxious individuals are less efficient when it comes to accessing numerical information in WM. Consequently, they may struggle with math-related tasks that involve retrieving numerical information from WM.

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The objectives were to examine the factorial structure of the Academic Procrastination Scale-Short Form (APS-S) and the measurement invariance across gender and educational levels, to determine possible differences in procrastination across gender, educational levels, and grades. The sample was formed of 1486 Spanish primary and secondary school students between the ages of 7 and 19 years. A one-factor model provided an adequate fit. Scalar and partial scalar invariance were achieved through gender and educational levels, respectively. Internal consistency was good and slightly higher for secondary school students than primary school students. Moderate convergent validity was obtained. The APS-S scores showed a weak but significant correlation with math anxiety. Procrastination scores increased with grade, and males showed significantly higher procrastination scores than females. The Spanish APS-S demonstrated adequate reliability and validity scores and could be a useful tool for examining academic procrastination in children and adolescents.

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