title: Math anxiety and its relationship with basic arithmetic skills among primary school children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Children have been found to report and demonstrate math anxiety as early as the first grade. However, previous results concerning the relationship between math anxiety and performance are contradictory, with some studies establishing a correlation between them while others do not. These contradictory results might be related to varying operationalizations of math anxiety.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we aimed to examine the prevalence of math anxiety and its relationship with basic arithmetic skills in primary school children, with explicit focus on two aspects of math anxiety: anxiety about failure in mathematics and anxiety in math-related situations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants comprised 1,327 children at grades 2-5.
  
  
  METHODS
  Math anxiety was assessed using six items, and basic arithmetic skills were assessed using three assessment tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Around one-third of the participants reported anxiety about being unable to do math, one-fifth about having to answer teachers' questions, and one tenth about having to do math. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that anxiety about math-related situations and anxiety about failure in mathematics are separable aspects of math anxiety. Structural equation modelling suggested that anxiety about math-related situations was more strongly associated with arithmetic fluency than anxiety about failure. Anxiety about math-related situations was most common among second graders and least common among fifth graders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As math anxiety, particularly about math-related situations, was related to arithmetic fluency even as early as the second grade, children's negative feelings and math anxiety should be identified and addressed from the early primary school years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Riikka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sorvo
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.|Niilo Mäki Institute, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Tuire
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koponen
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Viholainen
authors.affiliation: Niilo Mäki Institute, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.|Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Tuija
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aro
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Eija
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Räikkönen
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Pilvi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Peura
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dowker
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aro
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: math anxiety; math anxiety assessment; mathematical skills; primary school