Development and validation of a mathematics anxiety scale for students

Abstract

This study developed and validated a Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Students (MASS) that can be used to measure the level of mathematics anxiety that students experience in school settings and help them overcome anxiety and perform better in mathematics achievement. We conducted a series of preliminary analyses and panel reviews to evaluate quality of items initially developed for the MASS. The 65 items that measure four domains of mathematics anxiety (nature of mathematics, learning strategy, test/performance, and environment) were finally selected to constitute the final version of the MASS and were administered to a nationally representative sample of 2,339 Korean middle school and high school students to validate the scale. Psychometric properties including descriptive statistics, reliability measures, factorial structure, and correlations with external criteria were examined to provide validity evidences of the final scale. This study contains a detailed description of the entire process of developing and validating the MASS, including the itemselection procedures and psychometric properties of the scale. We believe that the MASS, developed in this study, provides basic but very essential information for predicting specific factors that can cause such anxiety among students.

Examining Mathematics Anxiety of Undergraduates Using a Brain-Based Measurement, EEG

“…Since [1] developed the original MARS instrument, MA instruments have become more specific and numerous, to measure students' MA with consideration of complex factors, including learning strategies and environment. For example, Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science [13] added a Test Anxiety (TA) factor to MARS; [2] and [14] revised the instrument to work with Korean students.…”

“…Specifically, [2] examined MA using 65 items, based on the four areas of [14]: the nature of mathematics, learning strategies, test performance, and environment-all related to Korean education. In Korea, most students take private lessons on mathematics to improve their learning ability, so Ko and Yi specified MA related to learning strategies and environments that were not included in previous instruments.…”

“…We revised words and phrases to make them more appropriate for college students, according to recommendations from educational psychologists and mathematics educators at the university where two of the researchers worked. The version of the MASS survey we used consisted of 65 items, divided into four main factors, with 12 sub factors [2]. Cronbach alpha values for the four factors proved to be between 0.7 and 0.9.…”

“…Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science tion to building up positive dispositions toward mathematics. The mathematics achievement of Korean students is top-ranked, but scores for positive affective domains in mathematics-such as interest and confidence-are not higher than the international average [2]. This result is not surprising because mathematics education in Korea has focused on computational and procedural approaches for rapid problem-solving responses, rather than creative approaches to problem solving or the application of mathematics to meaningful situations [3].…”

Anxiety towards Mathematics: A Case of Study in High-School Students

“…According to Ashcraft and Kirk (2001), people with high math anxiety have a particular way of behaving: they take fewer math courses, get grades below average in the classes, demonstrate lower math skills and performance, and displeases the performance of mathematical tasks (Hembree, 1990;Ma 1999;Jung, Kim, 2008;Ko et al, 2011).…”