Bosmans Guy, De Smedt Bert
Parenting and Special Education Research Group, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2015 Oct 15;6:1596. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01596. eCollection 2015.
Children's anxiety for situations requiring mathematical problem solving, a concept referred to as math anxiety, has a unique and detrimental impact on concurrent and long-term mathematics achievement and life success. Little is known about the factors that contribute to the emergence of math anxiety. The current study builds on the hypothesis that math anxiety might reflect a maladaptive affect regulation mechanism that is characteristic for insecure attachment relationships. To test this hypothesis, 87 children primary school children (M age = 10.34 years; SD age = 0.63) filled out questionnaires measuring insecure attachment and math anxiety. They all completed a timed and untimed standardized test of mathematics achievement. Our data revealed that individual differences in math anxiety were significantly related to insecure attachment, independent of age, sex, and IQ. Both tests of mathematics achievement were associated with insecure attachment and this effect was mediated by math anxiety. This study is the first to indicate that math anxiety might develop in the context of insecure parent-child attachment relationships.
儿童对需要解决数学问题的情境的焦虑，即所谓的数学焦虑，对当前和长期的数学成绩以及生活成功有着独特而有害的影响。对于导致数学焦虑出现的因素，人们知之甚少。当前的研究基于这样一种假设，即数学焦虑可能反映了一种适应不良的情感调节机制，这是不安全依恋关系的特征。为了验证这一假设，87名小学生（平均年龄 = 10.34岁；年龄标准差 = 0.63）填写了测量不安全依恋和数学焦虑的问卷。他们都完成了一项有时间限制和无时间限制的数学成绩标准化测试。我们的数据显示，数学焦虑的个体差异与不安全依恋显著相关，不受年龄、性别和智商的影响。两项数学成绩测试都与不安全依恋有关，并且这种影响是由数学焦虑介导的。这项研究首次表明，数学焦虑可能在不安全的亲子依恋关系背景下产生。
