From a young age, children’s math achievement is influenced by individual factors, such as math anxiety. While math anxiety has been linked to math avoidance, few studies have explored this link in young children, particularly in the context of play. Because play-based instruction is commonly used for math in early childhood classrooms, understanding the impact of math anxiety on children’s engagement in math-related play may have important implications for children’s early math learning. The current study examined the role of children’s math anxiety in their persistence and exploration during a math toy play task. We observed wide variability in children’s play behaviors, finding that children’s actions during play did not relate to their math anxiety, but their talk related to math while playing with the toy did. There are also age and gender differences in math anxiety, school experience, and reasoning about the toy play task. These results suggest that math anxiety may influence certain aspects of children’s engagement in math-related play, and that more research is needed to consider links between math anxiety and math avoidance in young children.
Math knowledge in early childhood is predictive of academic and math achievement through adolescence (
Math anxiety is defined as a domain-specific anxiety—such that it is anxiety specific to math performance, including anxiety about problems on math tests and about using math in everyday life, such as calculating a tip (
Understanding the impact of math anxiety on specific areas of children’s math development has important implications for children’s learning and achievement. Individual differences in math anxiety have been found in young elementary-age children, including children as young as first grade (
Further, longitudinal studies with children in second and third grades have shown that math anxiety relates to lower performance on math tasks, such as calculation, story problems, and number sentence completion, (
Fewer studies have examined math anxiety in preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. In one such study,
In another study,
Together these studies highlight the negative impact that math anxiety has on children’s math abilities and achievement from a young age. Although, as these studies demonstrate, the majority of studies on children’s math anxiety primarily focus on the impact of children’s math anxiety on elements of their formal math performance, such as test-taking and solving arithmetic problems. However, math in early childhood is not limited to these formal settings or tasks. In addition to formal math instruction, early childhood math learning often involves math concepts taught through play and games, or with math toys, materials, or manipulatives (
Learning math through play provides students with contextual practice of math concepts in an engaging and motivating way (
Many early childhood education classrooms have center time or free time when children can select learning activities. Because this time involves an opportunity to choose between math- and non-math-related play, it is important to consider what factors may influence children’s choice of, exploration of, and persistence with math play activities.
The variation in children’s choice of activities indicates that children differ in their self-initiated engagement and persistence in math activities. While math ability relates to the choice of certain activities but not of math activities, it is possible that other factors may influence children’s engagement and persistence in math activities. Because math anxiety relates to math avoidance (
The current study examined the relations of math anxiety and play behaviors for children ages 4- to 6-years-old. This age range was selected based on previous research on children’s math anxiety, as children in this age range have been shown to experience different levels of math anxiety (
In the present study, children were given a toy that required engaging in a simple math-related activity in order to make it work. Specifically, activating the toy required the child to count the number of dots on a card and press a button on the toy the corresponding number of times to hear a sound. After a demonstration, children were given an opportunity to play with the toy, but it did not work (
There were four overall aims of this study. The first was to examine the relation between children’s math anxiety and their play behaviors, specifically persistence and exploration. We predicted that children with higher math anxiety would be more likely to exhibit math avoidance and therefore be less persistent in trying to activate the math-related toy when it failed to work.
The second aim was to examine if children’s math anxiety predicted the type of explanations they offered for why they were not able to activate the math toy. Because children with higher math anxiety are more likely to have lower math self-concept and math self-efficacy (
The third aim was to examine the relation of math anxiety and gender. Based on previous research (
Finally, the fourth aim was to examine the relations between math anxiety and the role of school experience, specifically whether children had or had not started kindergarten. This aim was exploratory. Understanding the relations of math anxiety and school experience is important because schooling may influence children’s math anxiety, possibly through the introduction of formal math instruction or the influence of teacher or peer math anxiety.
In addition to the four pre-registered aims, we also conducted additional analyses to further examine variability in children’s toy play behaviors and relations with math anxiety. These analyses included examining each aim in terms of age and gender differences, as well as further examining children’s responses on the math anxiety questions. We also further examined children’s toy play behaviors by considering additional behaviors and coding the talk children used during the test trial. The following sections describe both the pre-registered and additional methods and analyses.
Procedures and planned analyses were pre-registered on Open Science Framework (see
Participants were 106 4- to 6-year-old children (mean age 63.4 months, range 48 to 82 months, 47% female). Participants were recruited from children’s museum and preschool settings in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Parents provided informed consent, and children provided verbal assent prior to participation in the study. An additional 16 children were tested and excluded from analyses due to parent or sibling interference during the tasks (
Parents completed a demographic survey, including parent and child race/ethnicity, languages spoken at home, highest level of education completed by each of the child’s parents, and annual household income.
Variable | |
---|---|
Child Race, |
|
African American or Black | 7 (6) |
Asian or Pacific Islander | 7 (6) |
Biracial/Mixed Race | 20 (20) |
White | 60 (57) |
Missing | 12 (11) |
Child Ethnicity, |
|
Hispanic or Latino | 88 (83) |
Not Hispanic or Latino | 14 (13) |
Missing | 4 (4) |
Highest Level of Education, Mothers, |
|
Postgraduate or professional degree | 58 (55) |
4-year college degree | 21 (20) |
2-year college degree | 3 (3) |
Some college coursework or vocational training | 10 (9) |
High school diploma or GED | 3 (3) |
Missing | 11 (10) |
Highest Level of Education, Fathers, |
|
Postgraduate or professional degree | 51 (48) |
4-year college degree | 22 (21) |
2-year college degree | 6 (6) |
Some college coursework or vocational training | 9 (8) |
High school diploma or GED | 7 (7) |
Some high school | 1 (<1) |
Missing | 10 (9) |
Annual Household Income, |
|
$151,000 or more | 46 (43) |
$101,000 - $150,000 | 15 (14) |
$76,000 - $100,000 | 13 (12) |
$60,000 - $75,000 | 6 (6) |
$60,000 or less | 8 (8) |
Missing | 18 (17) |
Child School Experience, |
|
Home-based Care | 4 (4) |
Daycare or Preschool | 45 (43) |
Kindergarten | 27 (25) |
Othera | 9 (8) |
Daycare or Preschool and Other | 11 (10) |
Kindergarten and Other | 1 (1) |
Missing | 9 (8) |
a“Other” school experiences included first grade, Montessori primary, homeschool, elementary, after school care, and grandmother.
All study procedures were approved by the University of Maryland, College Park Institutional Review Board prior to the start of the study. Children first completed a math anxiety questionnaire, then a toy play task, followed by a measure of cardinality. All tasks were completed in a small room at their preschool or in a children’s museum. All sessions were videotaped. Parents also completed a short demographic survey at the time of providing consent.
For the current measure, children answered a practice question with feedback on the use of the scale, then were asked seven questions targeting math anxiety, such as “How do you feel when you have to count to 30?” No specific feedback was given during the task. Children’s responses for each question were scored from one to three, with a one representing a choice of the “not nervous at all” face, a two representing a choice of the “a little nervous” face, and a three representing a choice of the “very nervous” face. The pre-registered outcome was a math anxiety score calculated as the average of their scores on the items. Therefore, scores closer to one indicate lower overall math anxiety, and scores closer to three indicate higher levels of math anxiety.
To further examine the relations of children’s math anxiety with their toy play behaviors, we also created a composite score of the math anxiety questions related to counting (i.e., “How do you feel when you have to count to 30?”, “How do you feel when your teacher asks you to count backwards from 20?,” and “How do you feel when your teacher asks you to count as high as you can?”), as the toy play task centered on children’s counting skills. Children’s average score on the three counting items was used (α = .54).
The toy play task involved counting dots on a card and pressing a button to activate the toy. The cards consisted of 5.0 x 3.75 in laminated cards with blue dots (.875-in diameter) on them. The toy was a 6.25 x 7.0 x 4.5 in foam cube covered in black tape with a remote-controlled doorbell hidden inside and a circular (3-in diameter) plastic blue button attached to the top (see
The task included three trials: an example, a practice trial, and an exploration test trial. During the example trial, the experimenter introduced the toy to the child and explained that the toy had cards that made it work, and that the toy would work when the button was pressed the same number of times as the dots on the card. The experimenter showed the child a card with two dots, labeled the quantity two, demonstrated pointing and counting the dots, and then pressed the button twice. The experimenter asked the child to acknowledge hearing the sound the toy made. The experimenter then demonstrated that pressing the button one time would not make the toy make a sound and repeated that the button needed to be pressed the same number of times as the number of dots on the card in order for the toy to work. Next, children were given a card with three dots and told it was their turn to count the dots and press the button. The experimenter had children practice until they could successfully press the button three times and activate the toy.
In the test trial, the experimenter told the child that she had to write something down but she had another card for the child to play with, and gave the child a card with eight dots. Children were given 90 seconds to play with the toy as they chose. During the 90 second period the toy did not activate for any responses. The extent to which children persisted in trying to activate the toy provided an implicit measure of children’s expectations that the toy ought to work given the actions they had performed (consistent with prior work on children’s persistence and exploration; e.g.,
Videos from the 90 second interval of play were coded using Datavyu software (
Counting attempts were defined as the number of times children counted the dots on the card (counting either correctly or incorrectly). To be coded as a counting attempt, children had to count out loud. Looking at the card without saying anything (with or without pointing) was not considered as a counting attempt. Starting to count and then restarting was coded as one attempt, and counting only some of the dots was also coded as one counting attempt.
Button pressing attempts were defined as the number of sets of times children pressed the button on the toy (e.g., if the child pressed the button seven times, then recounted and pressed the button eight times, this would count as two button pressing attempts, not 15 button pressing attempts). To differentiate between attempts, pauses were defined as a period two seconds or greater between button presses. This rule was also used to distinguish button pressing attempts when children started pressing the button while counting then started over; when they started recounting out loud but continued to press the button in one string of presses; and when children changed the rate at which they were pressing the button during a string of presses.
Button pressing attempts were coded as long as the child was pressing the button purposefully. Button pressing attempts were not coded when children’s hand was resting on the button but they were not actively pressing it.
Time spent exploring the toy was divided into two categories: (1) exploring the toy in a number-related way and (2) exploring the toy non-numerically or not exploring the toy. Together these variables accounted for the full 90 seconds of the play interval. Time spent exploring the toy numerically included behaviors, such as counting the dots on the card, pressing the button, and listening for the toy to make sound after a string of button presses (up to five seconds after they stop pressing the button). In addition, time spent talking about math (e.g., “I counted eight”) to themselves, to the experimenter, or to their parent was coded as numerical time.
All other observed behaviors were defined as time not exploring the toy or exploring the toy non-numerically. Typical examples of non-numerical exploration included shaking the toy, moving the card around, turning the button but not pressing it, or not engaging with the toy materials in any way. In addition, any time children spent talking not related to math or number (e.g., “it’s not working,”) or talking to get the attention of a parent or experimenter (e.g., “excuse me?”) was also considered non-numerical time. Similarly, time spent looking at the experimenter or a parent without saying anything was considered non-numerical time, as was time spent moving around the testing room or engaging with other materials in the testing room.
We examined the amount of time children spent on counting attempts and button attempts during the test trial to include an additional measure of persistence that would capture the differences in the rate at which children were counting the dots on the card and pressing the button on the toy.
To further understand relations between children’s toy play behaviors and math anxiety, we examined the talk children used during the test trial, beyond their counting attempts, because we observed that children were using talk during their exploration more than we had anticipated. Videos of children completing the test trial were coded for talk. The coding scheme included four categories of talk: math knowledge/procedure statements, math questions/uncertainty statements, non-math statements, and attention-getting statements (see
Category | Definition | Examples |
---|---|---|
Math knowledge/procedure statements | Statements of math knowledge, quantity, or math-related task procedures. |
“That was 8.” “I counted to 8.” “I’m pressing it 8 times but it’s not working.” “It’s 4+4.” |
Math questions or uncertainty statements | Questions about math, quantity, or counting, or statements indicating uncertainty about math knowledge/procedures, quantity, or counting. |
“Is it 8?” “How many is that?” “I don’t know how to count this card.” “Can you help me count this card?” |
Non-math statements | Statements not related to math. May include statements about the functionality of the toy or interactions with the toy, or other non-task-specific statements. |
“Why isn’t it working?” “I don’t know.” “I broke it.” “Maybe the battery is dead.” |
Attention-getting statements | Statements to get attention of experimenter or other adult(s) in testing room. |
“Excuse me?” “See?” |
To differentiate the talk measure from measures of counting and button attempts, counting out loud was not coded. Each statement was coded into only one category, as the definitions of math and non-math statements are mutually exclusive. If a statement included elements of both attention-getting and one of the other three categories (e.g., “Excuse me I counted to eight and it’s not working”), it was coded as the other category (e.g., math knowledge/procedure statements). Statements that described procedures of interacting with the toy but did not include specific math content (e.g., “I did it the right amount of times but it’s not working”) were coded as non-math statements. Non-word sounds and statements cutoff at the end of the test trial time were not coded. The number of statements in each category was used as a measure of children’s talk.
Coding reliability was evaluated separately for the counting and button press attempt variables, the time variables, and children’s talk during the test trial. For counting and button pressing attempts, two coders coded 20% of the videos at or above 80% agreement. Any disagreements were resolved by discussion. For the time variable, coding was considered reliable when total amount of math time coded by the coders was within plus or minus two seconds on either side of the coded interval. Two coders coded 20% of the videos at or above 80% agreement. For any disagreements, the master coder’s coding was used for analyses. For children’s talk, coding was completed by two coders. The first coder coded all of the videos, and the second coder coded 20% of the videos. Percent agreement was used as a measure of reliability. Average percent agreement was 95.8% for math knowledge/procedure statements, 100% for math questions/uncertainty statements, 80.3% for non-math statements, and 95.5% for attention-getting statements. For any disagreements, the first coder’s coding was used in all analyses.
A “How Many” task (adapted from
Children received separate scores for counting and cardinality. Counting was scored as correct if children stated the correct number of stars when viewing the stars (regardless of if they counted out loud or not). Cardinality was scored as correct if children stated the correct number of stars or stated the correct number of stars after a count sequence (e.g., 1, 2, 3...3) after the experimenter flipped the page over. Children did not receive credit for cardinality if they counted without restating the final number of the count sequence (e.g., 1, 2, 3). For both counting and cardinality, final scores were the total number of trials correct (ranging from 0 to 5).
Children’s school experience was classified from the demographic questionnaire that parents completed at the time of consent. Parents indicated the number of hours per week children attended home-based care, daycare, preschool, kindergarten, or other care/school experiences. Overall, 92% of parents provided a response to this question (see
In this section, we first present descriptive statistics for all measures. Then we present results of preliminary analyses. In the following sections, results are reported by aim, including both pre-registered analyses and additional exploratory analyses.
There was variability in children’s math anxiety scores. The average score across questions was 1.74 (
Item | Min | Max | Skew | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. How do you feel when you have to count to 30? | 1.75 | 0.83 | 1 | 3 | 0.47 |
2. How do you feel when your teacher asks you to count backwards from 20? | 2.02 | 0.84 | 1 | 3 | -0.03 |
3. How do you feel when you are sitting in circle time and you learn something new about numbers? | 1.3 | 0.60 | 1 | 3 | 1.81 |
4. How do you feel when you get called on by the teacher to show what day it is on the calendar? | 1.52 | 0.78 | 1 | 3 | 1.06 |
5. How do you feel when you have to solve a problem like 4-1 (read: 4 take away 1)? | 1.87 | 0.81 | 1 | 3 | 0.24 |
6. How do you feel when you see a book with a lot of numbers in it? | 1.97 | 0.82 | 1 | 3 | 0.05 |
7. How do you feel when your teacher asks you to count as high as you can? | 1.73 | 0.86 | 1 | 3 | 0.55 |
Average Math Anxiety Score | 1.74 | 0.44 | 1 | 2.71 | 0.05 |
Average Math Anxiety Score on Counting Items | 1.83 | 0.61 | 1 | 3 | 0.39 |
Children’s play behaviors with the toy varied widely (
Variable | Min | Max | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Math Anxiety | 1.74 | 0.44 | 1 | 2.71 | – | ||||||||||
2. Math Anxiety (Counting) | 1.83 | 0.61 | 1 | 3 | .883** | – | |||||||||
3. Counting Attempts | 2.53 | 1.66 | 0 | 9 | -0.019 | -0.095 | – | ||||||||
4. Button Attempts | 3.32 | 2.24 | 0 | 10 | -0.105 | -0.173 | .504** | – | |||||||
5. Time Exploring Toy Numerically | 41.11 | 22.52 | 0 | 88.64 | -0.022 | -0.109 | .691** | .828** | – | ||||||
6. Time on Counting Attempts | 11.94 | 9.48 | 0 | 56.59 | 0.163 | 0.091 | 0.064 | 0.026 | 0.105 | – | |||||
7. Time on Button Attempts | 20.54 | 13.71 | 0 | 51.87 | 0.133 | 0.079 | -0.031 | 0.054 | 0.074 | .529** | – | ||||
8. Math Knowledge/Procedure Statements | 1.17 | 1.93 | 0 | 11 | -.221* | -0.155 | 0.15 | 0.06 | 0.039 | 0.086 | -0.037 | – | |||
9. Math Questions/Uncertainty Statements | 0.25 | 1.26 | 0 | 11 | 0.061 | 0.017 | -0.035 | -0.099 | -0.119 | -0.069 | -0.061 | 0.002 | – | ||
10. Non-Math Statements | 1.70 | 2.23 | 0 | 14 | -0.05 | -0.007 | 0.015 | 0.044 | -0.006 | 0.115 | .301** | .207* | -0.061 | – | |
11. Attention-getting Statements | 0.21 | 0.70 | 0 | 5 | -0.051 | -0.06 | -0.095 | -0.025 | -0.013 | 0.119 | 0.106 | 0.122 | 0.007 | 0.089 | – |
*
For justifications for why the toy did not work, 30% of children provided an internal explanation, 33% of children provided an external explanation, and 37% of children provided an explanation that was neither internal or external (e.g., “I don’t know”).
The majority of children (82%) answered all five counting questions correctly, and 12% of children did not answer any of the questions correctly. The average score for the counting task was 4.74 (
Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine if there were differences in math anxiety by children’s gender, as previous research has indicated that girls are more likely to have higher math anxiety than boys (
Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine if there were relations between math anxiety and children’s cardinality scores, as previous research has indicated that higher math anxiety is related to lower math performance (
The first aim was to examine the relations between math anxiety and children’s behaviors during play with the toy. These relations were examined in multiple ways. Pre-registered analyses included correlations and regressions.
Linear regressions (pre-registered) were conducted to predict toy play behaviors from children’s math anxiety. One regression was used to predict a composite of counting attempts and pressing button attempts, and a separate regression was used to predict time spent exploring the toy numerically. Results indicated that math anxiety was not a significant predictor of children’s counting and button attempts, β = -0.068, B = -0.526,
As an additional analysis, we examined children’s use of talk during the test trial in multiple ways.
Variable | Statements |
|||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Math Knowledge/Procedure |
Math Questions/Uncertainty |
Non-Math |
Attention-Getting |
|||||||||
Math anxiety | -.963 (.417) | -2.309 | .023* | .173 (.280) | .619 | .537 | -.251 (.495) | -.506 | .614 | -.081 (.155) | -.518 | .605 |
*
We also conducted additional analyses to examine whether the relations between children’s math anxiety and their play behaviors varied by age and gender, because children’s math anxiety differed significantly by both children’s age,
The second aim was to examine the relations of math anxiety and children’s explanations of why the toy did not work. Pre-registered analyses included correlation and logistic regression. The correlation between children’s math anxiety score and their type of explanation was not significant (
However, additional analyses revealed children’s math anxiety on the counting items was significantly related to their explanations of why the toy did not work,
Additional analyses also considered age and gender differences in the relations between math anxiety and explanation type. There were no differences in the relation of children’s math anxiety and their explanations of why the toy did not work by age. However, we found the relation of math anxiety and children’s explanations of why the toy did not work varied based on children’s gender. Specifically, the correlation between children’s math anxiety score and their type of explanation was significant for boys,
Variable | Overall |
Boys |
Girls |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Estimate | Pr(>| |
Estimate | Pr(>| |
Estimate | Pr(>| |
|||||||
Constant | 0.521 | 0.965 | 0.540 | 0.589 | -3.292 | 1.526 | -2.158 | 0.031* | 1.337 | 1.879 | 0.711 | 0.477 |
Math Anxiety | 0.230 | 0.498 | 0.462 | 0.644 | 2.025 | 0.907 | 2.234 | 0.026* | -0.626 | 0.956 | -0.654 | 0.513 |
Gender | -0.149 | 0.438 | -0.341 | 0.733 | ||||||||
Null deviance: 129.84 on 105 degrees of freedom | Null deviance: 51.266 on 36 degrees of freedom | Null deviance: 41.455 on 29 degrees of freedom | ||||||||||
Residual deviance: 129.41 on 103 degrees of freedom | Residual deviance: 45.363 on 35 degrees of freedom | Residual deviance: 41.018 on 28 degrees of freedom |
*
The third aim was to examine the relation of math anxiety and gender (as a replication of previous research). As reported under preliminary analyses, a
Additional analyses were conducted to examine age differences in the relations between children’s math anxiety and gender. We found significant differences in the relation of math anxiety and gender. Specifically, there were no significant differences in math anxiety by gender for 4-year-olds,
The fourth aim was exploratory, to examine the relations between math anxiety and children’s school experience. We examined this because schooling has the potential to influence children’s math anxiety, possibly through the introduction of formal math instruction or the influence of teacher or peer math anxiety. School experience was classified as children who had or had not yet attended kindergarten. This classification was distinct from children’s age. Parents reported that 59.4% of children had not yet attended kindergarten (e.g., home-based care, daycare, preschool), and 40.6% of children had attended kindergarten or first grade). A
Similar to the previous aims, we conducted additional analyses to examine whether the relations between children’s math anxiety and school experience varied by gender and age. There were no differences in the relation of children’s math anxiety and school experience based on children’s gender. For children’s age, math anxiety was significantly higher for 5-year-olds who had started kindergarten (
The goal of the current study was to examine the relations of children’s math anxiety with their persistence and exploration during a math-related play task. Findings indicate that overall children’s math anxiety did not relate to their play behaviors, explanations of why the toy did not work, or school experience, but that there were differences in the pattern of results across age and gender. In addition, children’s talk during the toy play task related to their math anxiety, such that children with higher math anxiety made fewer statements about math knowledge or math procedures. This section describes these results in the context of links between children’s math anxiety and math avoidance and in relation to the current literature.
Previous research has indicated that children’s engagement in math-related play and exploration relates to their math learning and achievement, and that children vary in the amount and type of play and exploration they engage in at school (
Overall, these findings are consistent with previous research showing variability in children’s engagement in math play (
In addition to examining children’s play behaviors, we were also interested in children’s explanations of why the toy did not work during the test trial. We predicted that children with higher math anxiety would be more likely to use internal explanations (e.g., “I counted wrong”) and that children with lower math anxiety would be more likely to use external explanations (e.g., “because it is broken”). In contrast to our predictions, our primary analyses indicated that children’s overall math anxiety was not a significant predictor of explanation type. However, in our additional analyses we found that children’s explanations were significantly correlated with their math anxiety on questions that specifically asked about nervousness about counting. Because the toy play task specifically involved counting (dots on the card, number of button pushes), this suggests the influence of math anxiety on their reasoning about why they were not able to activate the toy may be specific to nervousness about relevant aspects of the task, rather than math anxiety in general. Future studies could examine this further by comparing toys or play that involve different aspects of children’s math skills (e.g., counting, arithmetic) in relation to children’s reported math anxiety levels on sets of questions related to each of these skills.
In our additional analyses, we found that there were gender differences, such that overall math anxiety was a significant predictor of explanation type for boys, but not for girls. Specifically, boys with higher math anxiety were more likely to use an external explanation than boys with lower math anxiety. This result was unexpected. It is possible that explanation type may be influenced by additional variables not examined here, such as math ability and math competence. Future studies could further examine relations of children’s reasoning and their math anxiety, including examinations of relations with these other variables. It is also important to consider that not all children provided an explanation that could be categorized as internal or external. To further understand children’s reasoning about their abilities to activate the toy, future studies could include additional questions to specifically target children’s perceptions of their ability to complete the math-related aspects of a toy play task.
Based on previous research, we examined relations of math anxiety and gender. Our findings replicated previous research, showing that even in younger children, girls reported significantly higher math anxiety than boys (
We examined children’s school experience in relation to their math anxiety. For the current study, we classified children’s school experience as children who had or had not started kindergarten, as we were interested in the role of formal school experience. While we did not find overall differences, there were significant differences based on children’s age. Math anxiety was significantly higher for 5-year-olds who had started kindergarten than 5-year-olds who had not. This suggests that children’s experiences in kindergarten have the potential to influence their math anxiety, as kindergarten may be their first experience with formal math instruction. In addition, it is also possible that interactions with math anxious teachers and/or peers at school could influence children’s own math anxiety.
The difference in children’s math anxiety being significant for 5-year-olds but not 4- or 6-year-olds may reflect the characteristics of our sample. In our sample, 56% (
The current study has multiple limitations, but opens up several promising lines for future research. First, it is important to consider how math anxiety is measured, particularly in relation to children’s age and ability level. Given the range in our sample of children’s ages and experiences with school, it is possible that children may have differed in their perceived difficulty of the problems included in the math anxiety questions (e.g., counting to 30, counting backwards from 20, solving 4 – 1). This could impact children’s reported math anxiety, as the perceived difficulty level of the specific problems in the math anxiety questions can change the pattern of responses children provide (
In addition, the toy play task we used to examine children’s play behaviors was specifically designed for the current study. The task involved play with a novel toy that had one function—counting dots on a card and pressing a button the same number of times to hear a sound. While this toy allowed us to examine variation in children’s play behaviors during a math-related task, the characteristics of the toy are limiting in terms of understanding children’s engagement with more conventional math toys. Future studies could further examine the relations of children’s math anxiety and play behaviors with different types of math-related toys, such as blocks, puzzles, and shapes, or toys with multiple functions. This would allow for a more nuanced understanding of the relations between children’s math anxiety and their play behaviors. Similarly, future studies could also consider math avoidance in the context of play by examining children’s engagement with math toys when they have a choice of different non-math related toys or activities (e.g., math toys, literacy toys, other games, books, etc.). This could approximate the types of choices children have during classroom center time, and allow for further understanding of children’s self-initiated engagement and persistence in their math learning.
Finally, the sample included in the current study had predominantly high household income and high levels of parent education. It is possible that these demographic factors may relate to children’s experiences with math at home as well as parents’ own math anxiety levels, which could in turn impact children’s math anxiety levels. Future studies should aim to recruit a more diverse sample of participants and could also include additional measures to examine parent math anxiety and families’ experiences with math at home.
The current study examined relations of children’s math anxiety and play behaviors. The study addressed a gap in the literature by examining the relations of math anxiety and math avoidance in young children, and in the context of play. Findings indicated that children’s actions during play did not relate to their math anxiety, but their talk about math knowledge while playing did relate to their math anxiety. Overall, these findings suggest that children’s math anxiety may relate to certain aspects of engagement in math-related play and exploration. Results also indicate that more research is needed to further examine links between math anxiety and math avoidance in early childhood. Understanding the connections between children’s math anxiety, math avoidance, and their engagement and performance in math could have important implications for children’s overall math development and later math and academic achievement.
Geetha B. Ramani is an Associate Editor for the
We would like to thank the children who participated in the study. We would also like to thank Lily Diaz, Marisa Flanigan, Michelle Kaufman, Julia Oliveira, and Michelle Greenberg for their help with data collection and coding for the study.
Our research was conducted in accordance with ethical standards. All study procedures were approved by the University of Maryland, College Park Institutional Review Board prior to the start of the study.
The Supplementary Materials contain the pre-registration information for this study (for access see
The authors have no funding to report.