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Assessing math anxiety in elementary schoolchildren through a Spanish version of the Scale for Early Mathematics Anxiety (SEMA).

ABSTRACT: Math anxiety (MA) affects students of all age groups. Because of its effects on children's academic development, the need to recognize its early manifestations has been highlighted. We designed a European-Spanish version of the Scale for Early Mathematics Anxiety (SEMA; Wu et al. (2012)), and assessed its psychometric properties in a sample of children aged 7 to 12 years. The participants (967 typically developing children) were elementary school students recruited from ten schools. Children reported their general and math anxiety levels in an individual session and performed nonverbal IQ and math abilities subtests in a group session. Teachers reported the final math grades. The psychometric indices obtained, and the resulting factor structure revealed that the European-Spanish version of the SEMA developed in this study is a reliable and valid measure to evaluate MA in children from 3rd to 6th grade. Moreover, we explored gender differences, that resulted in small effect sizes, which disappeared when controlling for trait anxiety. Differences across grades were found for both global MA and the numerical processing anxiety factor but not for the situational and performance anxiety factor. Finally, MA was negatively associated with students' math achievement, although the strength of the associations varied with the MA measure selected, the kind of math achievement analyzed, and the school stage considered. Our findings highlight the relevance of MA in elementary school and highlight the need for an early identification of students at risk of suffering MA to palliate the negative consequences of MA in children's cognitive and academic development.

SUBMITTER: Sanchez-Perez N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8341591 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:In the past decade, there has been increasing interest in understanding how and when math anxiety (MA) develops. The incidence and effects of MA in primary school children, and its relations with math achievement, have been investigated. Nevertheless, only a few studies have focused on the first years of primary school, highlighting that initial signs of MA may emerge as early as 6 years of age. Nevertheless, there are some issues with measuring MA in young children. One of these is that, although several scales have been recently developed for this age group, the psychometric properties of most of these instruments have not been adequately tested. There is also no agreement in the number and identity of the factors that underlie MA at this young age. Some scales also consist of several items, which make them impractical to use in multivariate studies, which aim at the simultaneous measurement of several constructs. Finally, most scales have been developed and validated in US populations, and it is unclear if they are appropriate to be used in other countries. In order to address these issues, the current studies aimed at developing a short, new instrument to assess MA in early elementary school students, the Early Elementary School Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (the EES-AMAS). This scale is an adapted version of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS; Hopko et al., 2003), which is one of the most commonly used scales to measure MA and has been shown to be a valid and reliable measure across a number of countries and age groups. The psychometric properties of the new scale have been investigated by taking into account its dimensionality, reliability, and validity. Moreover, the gender invariance of the scale has been verified by showing the measurement equivalence of the scale when administered to male and female pupils. We have also demonstrated the equivalence of the scale across languages (Italian and English). Overall, the findings confirmed the validity and reliability of the new scale in assessing the early signs of math anxiety and in measuring differences between genders and educational contexts. We have also shown that MA was already related to math performance, and teacher's ratings of children's math ability at this young age. Additionally, we have found no gender differences in MA in our samples of 6- and 7-year-old children, an important finding, given the strong evidence for gender differences in MA in older age groups.

Project description:Background and objectiveThe Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) is an instrument that measures the severity of anxiety due to COVID-19 or coronaphobia. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults are the most vulnerable age group; therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CAS in this group.Materials and method274 Peruvian older adults participated (Mage=67.86; SD=6.34, 64.6% women). In addition to the CAS, the 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), and 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-2) were applied. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to assess the factor structure of the CAS and Item Response Theory was used to analyze item characteristics. A sequence of hierarchical variance models was used to evaluate the measurement invariance of the CAS according to age. To assess reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α) and the omega coefficient (ω) were used. The correlations between the CAS score and the scores of the PHQ-2 and GAD-2 scales were calculated with Pearson's correlation coefficient (r).ResultsThe results of the CFA indicated that the unidimensional model of the CAS fitted the data adequately and showed very good reliability (α and ω≥.83). Likewise, all items provided high information and adequate discrimination, which allowed for better detection of average and high levels of coronaphobia in the older adult population. However, the CAS did not show evidence of being strictly invariant between older adults aged 60-65 years and 66-86 years. The CAS showed significant correlations with anxiety (r=.72; [95%CI: .66, .87] p<.01) and depression (r=.53; [95%CI: .43, .76] p<.01).ConclusionThe CAS in Spanish shows evidence of validity based on internal structure, convergent and divergent validity, as well as an adequate reliability estimate to assess coronaphobia in older adults. The CAS can be used to detect average and high levels of coronaphobia in the older adult population.

Project description:BackgroundHispanics comprise the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Previous work with the Spanish Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) yielded good validity, but lower test-retest reliability. We report the performance of the Spanish MDAS in a new sample, as well as the performance of the Spanish Revised Dental Beliefs Survey (R-DBS).MethodsOne hundred sixty two Spanish-speaking adults attending Spanish-language church services or an Hispanic cultural festival completed questionnaires containing the Spanish MDAS, Spanish R-DBS, and dental attendance questions, and underwent a brief oral examination. Church attendees completed the questionnaire a second time, for test-retest purposes.ResultsThe Spanish MDAS and R-DBS were completed by 156 and 136 adults, respectively. The test-retest reliability of the Spanish MDAS was 0.83 (95% CI = 0.60-0.92). The internal reliability of the Spanish R-DBS was 0.96 (95% CI = 0.94-0.97), and the test-retest reliability was 0.86 (95% CI = 0.64-0.94). The two measures were significantly correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.38, p < 0.001). Participants who do not currently go to a dentist had significantly higher MDAS scores (t = 3.40, df = 106, p = 0.003) as well as significantly higher R-DBS scores (t = 2.21, df = 131, p = 0.029). Participants whose most recent dental visit was for pain or a problem, rather than for a check-up, scored significantly higher on both the MDAS (t = 3.00, df = 106, p = 0.003) and the R-DBS (t = 2.85, df = 92, p = 0.005). Those with high dental fear (MDAS score 19 or greater) were significantly more likely to have severe caries (Chi square = 6.644, df = 2, p = 0.036). Higher scores on the R-DBS were significantly related to having more missing teeth (Spearman's rho = 0.23, p = 0.009).ConclusionIn this sample, the test-retest reliability of the Spanish MDAS was higher. The significant relationships between dental attendance and questionnaire scores, as well as the difference in caries severity seen in those with high fear, add to the evidence of this scale's construct validity in Hispanic samples. Our results also provide evidence for the internal and test-retest reliabilities, as well as the construct validity, of the Spanish R-DBS.

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Assessing math anxiety in elementary schoolchildren through a Spanish version of the Scale for Early Mathematics Anxiety (SEMA).

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