Math anxiety, mother's education, and the mathematics performance of adolescent boys and girls: evidence from the United States and Thailand.
In this study, I investigated the relationship of mathematics performance to math anxiety, mother's education, and gender. A secondary analysis was conducted using nationally representative samples of 13-year-old children in the United States (N = 4,091) and Thailand (N = 3,613) collected as a part of the Second International Mathematics Study (Garden, 1987). Separate ANOVAs (Math Anxiety x Mother's Education x Gender) were run within each country using a 40-item math performance test as the dependent variable. Math anxiety has an inverse relationship with mathematics performance in the United States (r = -.24) and in Thailand (r = -.14). The relationship between math anxiety and mathematics performance is significant in both countries after controlling for previous achievement, mother's education, and gender, although the data suggest that there is a three-way interaction between math anxiety, mother's education, and gender in Thailand.
Engelhard
G
G
Division of Educational Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322.
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001076:Aptitude; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education*; D013785:Thailand; D014481:United States