Math anxiety in elementary and secondary school students.

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Abstract
We assessed math anxiety in 6th- through 12th-grade children (N = 564) as part of a comprehen- sive longitudinal investigation of children's beliefs, attitudes, and values concerning mathematics. Confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for two components of math anxiety, a negative affective reactions component and a cognitive component. The affective component of math anxiety related more strongly and negatively than did the worry component to children's ability perceptions, performance perceptions, and math performance. The worry component related more strongly and positively than did the affective component to the importance that children attach to math and their reported actual effort in math. Girls reported stronger negative affective reactions to math than did boys. Ninth-grade students reported experiencing the most worry about math and sixth graders the least. The negative effects of math anxiety on students' achieve- ment in mathematics has interested researchers for several years. Richardson and Woolfolk (1980) discussed how certain features of math, such as its precision, logic, and emphasis on problem solving, make it particularly anxiety provoking for some individuals. Studies have documented the negative ef- fects of math anxiety on math performance and achievement (Richardson & Suinn, 1972; Suinn, Edie, Nicoletti, & Spinelli, 1972). Several researchers also have proposed that math anx- iety contributes to observed sex differences in mathematics achievement and course enrollment patterns (e.g., Fennema, 1977; Fox, 1977; Tobias & Weissbrod, 1980). Various questions concerning math anxiety have received scant research attention. First, the dimensionality of math anxiety has not been explored fully. In the test anxiety area,

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