Anxiety towards Mathematics in Middle School Students in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca

Abstract

Anxiety towards mathematics has been a phenomenon that is frequently present in students. In the Mexican context, it has been a severe problem observed since secondary education. According to the results of the Program for International Student Assessment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 56 % of young people who graduate from middle school in Mexico have a low level of proficiency in mathematics. The present study focuses on determining the dimension that best explains anxiety towards mathematics in middle school students, as well as identifying if there is a difference by gender, age and school grade. For this purpose, the scale designed by Muñoz and Mato (2007) was used, which consists of 24 items that are integrated into five dimensions. The participants were 200 students enrolled in grades 2nd and 3rd of a middle school in the city of Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. For data analysis, reliability, internal consistency and normality were verified, which is acceptable (α: > 0.08). For the hypothesis test, in order to determine if there is a difference by gender, age, and school grade in the five dimensions of the scale used, the ANOVA test is utilized. The findings showed that there is no difference in relation to gender, age and school grade, and that the dimension that best explains anxiety towards mathematics is anxiety before real-life mathematical situations (ATRLMS) followed by anxiety before mathematics evaluation (ATE).