Cargnelutti Elisa, Tomasetto Carlo, Passolunghi Maria Chiara
a Department of Life Sciences - Psychology Unit "Gaetano Kanizsa" , University of Trieste , Trieste (TS) , Italy.
b Department of Psychology , University of Bologna , Cesena (FC) , Italy.
Cogn Emot. 2017 Jun;31(4):755-764. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1147421. Epub 2016 Mar 3.
Both general and math-specific anxiety are related to proficiency in mathematics. However, it is not clear when math anxiety arises in young children, nor how it relates to early math performance. This study therefore investigated the early association between math anxiety and math performance in Grades 2 and 3, by accounting for general anxiety and by further inspecting the prevalent directionality of the anxiety-performance link. Results revealed that this link was significant in Grade 3, with a prevalent direction from math anxiety to performance, rather than the reverse. Longitudinal analyses also showed an indirect effect of math anxiety in Grade 2 on subsequent math performance in Grade 3. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of monitoring anxiety from the early stages of schooling in order to promote proficient academic performance.
一般焦虑和数学特定焦虑都与数学能力有关。然而，目前尚不清楚幼儿的数学焦虑何时出现，也不清楚它与早期数学成绩有何关联。因此，本研究通过考虑一般焦虑并进一步考察焦虑与成绩关联的普遍方向性，调查了二、三年级学生数学焦虑与数学成绩之间的早期关联。结果显示，这种关联在三年级时显著，普遍方向是从数学焦虑到成绩，而非相反。纵向分析还表明，二年级的数学焦虑对三年级随后的数学成绩有间接影响。总体而言，这些发现凸显了从学校教育早期阶段就监测焦虑以促进学业成绩优异的重要性。
