The Link Between Math Anxiety and Math Achievement: The Role of Afterschool Learning

Authors

  • Seowon Song
    Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
  • Tianyu Li
    Department of Psychological Science and Counseling, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN, USA
  • Michaela Quintero
    Psychology Department, Ashland University, Ashland, OH, USA
  • Zhe Wang
    Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

Abstract

The present study tested the learning avoidance model by examining the degree to which learning avoidance in various afterschool settings mediated the negative association between math anxiety and math achievement. Participants consisted of 207 third to sixth graders. Using a path model, findings showed that students’ math anxiety was negatively associated with both standardized math achievement test scores and parent-reported math school grades. Additionally, higher math anxiety was associated with more negative homework behaviors and less frequent participation in math-related extracurricular activities. Finally, the association between math anxiety and math achievement was partially mediated by negative math homework behaviors and participation in math extracurricular activities. Effort in math exam preparation did not contribute to explaining the association between math anxiety and math achievement. Overall, these findings support the learning avoidance model and suggest that avoidance behaviors in everyday learning in the afterschool setting may contribute to explaining the undesired math achievement among highly math anxious students.