Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Math Anxiety, Math-self-efficacy, and Math-performance: A Study of Indian School Children
Sucharita Maji
ABSTRACT:
Math anxiety is defined as an apprehension that interferes with performance in mathematics in an adverse manner. The current study aimed at understanding whether math anxiety significantly impacts math self-efficacy, math performance, and STEM-related career selection decisions among school children. In India, the survey-based data was collected from seventh- to twelfth-grade school children (N=200; M=110, F=90). The result indicates that math anxiety significantly predicts math self-efficacy, performance, and STEM-related career selection among male and female students. There is no gender difference in math anxiety, math performance, and STEM-related career decision-making; however, females are found to be significantly lower in math self-efficacy than male students. Moreover, math self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between math anxiety and math performance. The future implications of this work in the context of career-decision making in the STEM-related fields are also discussed.
keywords: career selection, gender, math anxiety, math self-efficacy, STEM.