Mathematics Achievement and Anxiety and Their Relation to Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors

Abstract

Although behavioral difficulties are well documented in reading disabilities, little is known about the relationship between math ability and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Here, we use standardized measures to investigate the relation among early math ability, math anxiety, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a group of 366 second and third graders. Math achievement was significantly correlated with attentional difficulties and social problems but not with internalizing symptoms. The relation between math achievement and externalizing behavioral problems was stronger in girls than in boys. Math achievement was not correlated with trait anxiety but was negatively correlated with math anxiety. Critically, math anxiety differed significantly between children classified as math learning disabled (MLD), low achieving (LA), and typically developing (TD), with math anxiety significantly higher in the MLD and LA groups compared to the TD group. Our findings suggest that, even in nonclinical samples, math difficulties at the earliest stages of formal math learning are associated with attentional difficulties and domain-specific anxiety. These findings underscore the need for further examination of the shared cognitive, neural, and genetic influences underlying problem solving and nonverbal learning difficulties and accompanying internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

Mathematics: I don't like it! I like it! Very much, a little, not at all... Social support and emotions in students from 2nd and 3rd cycles of education

“…Most of the empirical evidence on achievement emotions has originated from the extensive research on Anxiety, and Mathematics Anxiety in particular, which has typically been negatively associated to student math achievement and performance (Ahmed et al, 2010;Ahmed et al, 2013;Luo et al, 2014;Radišić, Vidennović, & Baucal, 2015;Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine, & Beilock, 2013;Wu, Willcutt, Escovar, & Menon, 2014). There is however mixed evidence, since math Anxiety has also been either positively related (e.g., Macher et al, 2013), or unrelated to students' performance (e.g., Kyttala & Bjorn, 2010), particularly when competence beliefs were taken into account (Erturan & Jansen, 2015).…”

The Development and Validation of a Revised Version of the Math Anxiety Scale for Young Children

“…In the work with young children, the evidence is mixed, however, as three studies found that math anxiety was correlated with general anxiety (Wu et al, 2014; Cargnelutti et al, 2016; Hill et al, 2016) and two studies found no relation (Gierl and Bisanz, 1995; Wu et al, 2012). Hence, it is unclear from the literature how math anxiety and general anxiety may be related for young children.…”

Distinct influences of affective and cognitive factors on children’s non-verbal and verbal mathematical abilities

“…The most relevant evidence for the role of attention problems in math performance comes from studies on children with behavioral disorders that involve attentional weaknesses such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; Capano, Minden, Chen, Schacher, & Ickowicz, 2008; Wu, Willcutt, Escovar, & Menon, 2014). Attentional problems in children diagnosed with ADHD have been shown to interfere with basic computational processes, such as fact retrieval (Zentall, 1990) as well as with more complex math processes (Raghubar et al, 2009).…”