Math Anxiety Differentially Affects Boys’ and Girls’ Arithmetic, Reading and Fluid Intelligence Skills in Fifth Graders

Abstract

Previous research has shown that math anxiety negatively affected cognitive performance in adults and adolescents beyond arithmetic. In children, math anxiety has been reported to impair arithmetic performance mainly in girls, but the effect of math anxiety on other cognitive skills has not been investigated in children so far. To fill this gap, the present study examined the effects of math anxiety on arithmetic, reading and fluid intelligence in 5th-grade children, studying possible gender differences and controlling for the effects of test anxiety. The results indicated marked gender differences in the relation between math anxiety and cognitive abilities, showing that only in girls’ math anxiety was negatively correlated with arithmetic, reading and fluid intelligence. In boys, no significant correlations were found between math anxiety and the three cognitive abilities. Theoretical and practical implications of these results will be discussed.