Hart Sara A, Ganley Colleen M
Department of Psychology & Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University.
Department of Psychology & Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University.
J Numer Cogn. 2019;5(2):122-139. doi: 10.5964/jnc.v5i2.195. Epub 2019 Aug 22.
It is important to understand the nature of math anxiety in the general adult population, as the importance of math skills does not end when one leaves school. To this end, we present a well-powered, preregistered study of English-speaking U.S. adults describing the nature of math anxiety in this population. 1000 participants were recruited online. Math anxiety was approximately normally distributed, with the mean between "some" and "moderate". Math anxiety was significantly negatively correlated with probability knowledge and math fluency, and significantly positively correlated with general anxiety and test anxiety. Women reported higher math anxiety than did men. Participants who had completed graduate school or had a STEM career had significantly lower levels of math anxiety than did those with less education, or non-STEM careers. Thus, we see evidence for math anxiety in U.S. adults and that it correlates with factors also reported in previous studies using younger and student populations.
了解普通成年人群体中数学焦虑的本质很重要，因为数学技能的重要性并不会在一个人离开学校时就结束。为此，我们开展了一项样本量充足、预先注册的针对美国成年英语使用者的研究，描述该群体中数学焦虑的本质。通过网络招募了1000名参与者。数学焦虑大致呈正态分布，平均值介于“有些”和“中等”之间。数学焦虑与概率知识和数学流畅性显著负相关，与一般焦虑和考试焦虑显著正相关。女性报告的数学焦虑高于男性。完成研究生学业或从事STEM职业的参与者的数学焦虑水平明显低于受教育程度较低或从事非STEM职业的参与者。因此，我们看到了美国成年人中存在数学焦虑的证据，并且它与之前针对年轻人群体和学生群体的研究所报告的因素相关。
