Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

Primi, Caterina; Busdraghi, Chiara; Tomasetto, Carlo; Morsanyi, Kinga; Chiesi, Francesca

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.05.012

Cited by 72 publications

(94 citation statements)

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“…In the first study, Hopko et al (2003) reported its good internal consistencies (≥ .85) and test-retest reliability (≥ .78). These estimates were similar in Iranian (Cronbach's alpha ≥ .75; Vahedi & Farrokhi, 2011), Italian (Cronbach's alpha ≥ .80; Primi et al, 2014), Polish (Cronbach's alpha ≥ .78; test-retest reliability ≥ .59; ordinal alpha ≥ .84; Cipora et al, 2015aCipora et al, , 2015b, German (Cronbach's alpha for total score = .92; Dietrich, Huber, Moeller, & Klein, 2015), and Spanish (Cronbach's alpha ≥ .87; Brown & Sifuentes, 2016) language versions. Reliability holds both for adults, high-schoolers (Cronbach's alpha for Italian high-schoolers ≥ .81; Primi et al, 2014 and ≥ .76 for Polish secondary-and high schoolers; Cipora et al, 2015b) and primary schoolers 8-11-year-olds (Cronbach's alpha in Italian sample ≥ .64; Caviola, Primi, Chiesi, & Mammarella, 2017).…”

Section: Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 65%

“…The majority of studies suggests that females (both adults and children) tend to have higher MA than males. Such differences (i.e., women revealing higher levels than men) have been reported in the U.S. (see e.g., Hembree, 1990), the U.K. (Hunt, Clark-Carter, & Sheffield, 2011), Australia (Gyuris & Everingham, 2011), and outside Anglo-Saxon countries in Italy (Primi, Busdraghi, Tomasetto, Morsanyi, & Chiesi, 2014), Spain (Núñez-Peña, Suárez-Pellicioni, Guilera, & Mercadé-Carranza, 2013), and Poland (Cipora, Szczygieł, Willmes, & Nuerk, 2015a), for instance. In line with these findings, females sometimes performed worse on math tests than cognitive capacity-matched males, and this poorer performance was attributed to lower MA (Devine, Fawcett, Szűcs, & Dowker, 2012).…”

Section: Gender Differences In Math Anxietymentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Importantly, the AMAS structure was shown to be gender-invariant, which was found both for the original English version as well as for other language versions including Farsi (Vahedi & Farrokhi, 2011), Italian (Caviola et al, 2017Primi et al, 2014) and Polish (Cipora et al, 2015a).…”

Section: Validitymentioning

confidence: 80%

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Norms and validation of the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) for Polish adolescents and adults

et al. 2018

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The Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) is one of the most popular instruments measuring math anxiety (MA). It has been validated across several linguistic and cultural contexts. In this study, we investigated the extent of administration method invariance of the AMAS by comparing results (average scores, reliabilities, factorial structure) obtained online with those from paper-and-pencil. We administered the online version of the AMAS to Polish students. Results indicate that psychometric properties of the AMAS do not differ between online and paper-and-pencil administration. Additionally, average scores of the AMAS did not differ considerably between administration forms, contrary to previous results showing that computerized measurement of MA leads to higher scores. Therefore, our results provide evidence for the usefulness of the AMAS as a reliable and valid MA measurement tool for online research and online screening purposes across cultures and also large similarity between administration forms outside an American-English linguistic and cultural context. Finally, we provide percentile and standard norms for the AMAS for adolescents and adults (in the latter case for both online and paper-and-pencil administration) as well as critical differences for the comparison of both subscales in an individual participant for practical diagnostic purposes.Keywords: math anxiety, Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale, online survey, validation, norms Journal of Numerical Cognition, 2017, Vol. 3(3), 667-693, doi:10.5964/jnc.v3i3.121 Received: 2017-03-02. Accepted: 2017-08-17. Published (VoR): 2018-01-30.*Corresponding author at: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Arbeitsbereich Diagnostik und Kognitive Neuropsychologie, Fachbereich Psychologie, Schleichstraße 4 72076 Tübingen, Germany. E-mail: krzysztof.cipora@gmail.com This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Math Underachievement -Its Causes and ConsequencesPoor numeracy may even be more harmful for an individual than poor literacy (Butterworth, Varma, & Laurillard, 2011). Considerable large-scale economic consequences of math underachievement have also been reported (OECD, 2010). Therefore, the cognitive and emotional causes of impaired numeracy are of major interest both theoretically and practically. Regarding emotional aspects, math anxiety (MA) is probably the most prominent and important variable that negatively correlates with math achievement. It has been extensively investigated since the 1960's (see Dowker, Sarkar, & Looi, 2016 for review). A sizeable negative relationship between MA and math performance is evident in previous PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) studies Journal of Numerical Cognition jnc.psychopen.eu | 2363-8761 across virtually all countries involved in th...

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Section: Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Gender Differences In Math Anxietymentioning

confidence: 66%

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Norms and validation of the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) for Polish adolescents and adults

et al. 2018

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“…El estudio de estas variables en la educación secundaria es especialmente importante porque, de acuerdo con Aschcraft (2005), citado por Primi et al (2014), "El interés y la motivación declinan conforme el estudiante va creciendo, y la ansiedad matemática se piensa que se desarrolla en la educación secundaria, coincidiendo con la creciente dificultad del plan de estudios de matemáticas".…”

Section: Solving Of Mathematical Problems In Costa Rican Secondary Edunclassified

“…La ansiedad en matemática ha sido objeto de estudio en los últimos años, y se ha encontrado que las personas que la padecen evitan los ambientes y las carreras que requieran el uso de este curso (Primi, Busdraghi, Tomasetto, Morsanyi y Chiesi, 2014). Estos mismos autores demuestran que las personas con mayor ansiedad matemática tienen un menor desempeño que las que tienen niveles más bajos en tareas de corte matemático.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Resolución De Problemas Matemáticos en La Educación Media Costarricense: Un Estudio Acerca De La Actitud

2015

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En este artículo se exponen los resultados de un estudio realizado sobre de la actitud de los estudiantes de la educación media oficial costarricense hacia la resolución de problemas matemáticos. En dicho estudio, se indagó la existencia de diferencias entre hombres y mujeres y, además, se identificaron los niveles educativos con mejor actitud. La investigación se realizó con una muestra de 3271 estudiantes durante el año 2014.Los resultados muestran que aproximadamente un 20% de los estudiantes tiene una actitud baja o muy baja hacia la resolución de problemas matemáticos, lo cual es poco favorable, y que cerca del 50% tiene una actitud media, es decir, ni baja ni alta. También, los resultados revelan diferencias estadísticamente significativas en el nivel de actitud hacia la resolución de problemas matemáticos por sexo, donde los hombres presentan niveles mayores, aunque con un tamaño del efecto bajo.Los hallazgos sugieren entonces que no hay diferencias en el nivel de actitud entre los estudiantes de décimo y undécimo año, y que estos niveles evidencian niveles más bajos de actitud comparados con sétimo, octavo y noveno; lo anterior resulta preocupante por cuanto los niveles menos favorables de actitud se dan precisamente en los estudiantes más próximos a elegir carrera universitaria, en donde el componente matemático es vital para la selección de opciones en ciencia y tecnología

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Measuring Probabilistic Reasoning: The Construction of a New Scale Applying Item Response Theory

Primi

Morsanyi

Donati

et al. 2017

Behavioral Decision Making

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Probabilistic reasoning skills are important in various contexts. The aim of the present study was to develop a new instrument (the Probabilistic Reasoning Scale – PRS) to accurately measure low levels of probabilistic reasoning ability in order to identify people with difficulties in this domain. Item response theory was applied to construct the scale, and to investigate differential item functioning (i.e., whether the items were invariant) across genders, educational levels, and languages. Additionally, we tested the validity of the scale by investigating the relationships between the PRS and several other measures. The results revealed that the items had a low level of difficulty. Nonetheless, the discriminative measures showed that the items can discriminate between individuals with different trait levels, and the test information function showed that the scale accurately assesses low levels of probabilistic reasoning ability. Additionally, through investigating differential item functioning, the measurement equivalence of the scale at the item level was confirmed for gender, educational status, and language (i.e., Italian and English). Concerning validity, the results showed the expected correlations with numerical skills, math‐related attitudes, statistics achievement, IQ, reasoning skills, and risky choices both in the Italian and British samples. In conclusion, the PRS is an ideal instrument for identifying individuals who struggle with basic probabilistic reasoning, and who could be targeted by specific interventions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

Cited by 72 publications

References 32 publications

Norms and validation of the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) for Polish adolescents and adults

Norms and validation of the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) for Polish adolescents and adults

Resolución De Problemas Matemáticos en La Educación Media Costarricense: Un Estudio Acerca De La Actitud

Measuring Probabilistic Reasoning: The Construction of a New Scale Applying Item Response Theory

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