People who experience feelings of stress when faced with situations related to mathematics may be suffering from math anxiety. This type of stress can affect people of all ages and can lead to poor performance in math classes, as well as hinder the mastery of skills or projects in a number of areas that are computer-based. Math anxiety is more than just stressing out during a math test; it is an intense sense of worry or fear that people have when they have to do a math task. It can happen at home, at school, or at work.
Math anxiety is manifested emotionally, cognitively and physiologically and leads to results such as decreased performance. On an emotional level, people suffer from feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry. On a cognitive level, mathematical anxiety compromises the functioning of working memory. In a study focusing on the fear network, 26 children with high mathematical anxiety showed hyperactivity and abnormal connectivity in the right basolateral amygdala.
Mathematically eager students (often women) avoid enrolling not only in mathematics courses but also in related fields such as science, technology and engineering. Anxiety and interest in mathematics were more important to students' career decisions than their knowledge of mathematics, as measured by SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) scores. Those with high math anxiety scored significantly better on the test if they had been in the expressive writing group than if they had simply sat in silence. The influence of success in mathematics on math anxiety, perceived mathematical competence, and math performance has been extensively researched and its negative impact has been recognized. Long-term studies are needed in which the development of gender differences in mathematical anxiety can be observed throughout the formative years of children.
There are also students who struggle with mathematics, but do not have the resources that can help them, making them anxious about it. Figure 1 suggests that math anxiety interacts with other variables in situations related to mathematics. It is important to understand how math anxiety affects individuals so that appropriate interventions can be developed to help those who suffer from it.
