The condition of discomfort associated with performing mathematical tasks known as Mathematical Anxiety (MA) affects a significant number of school age population. Though the condition is thought to be more common among children studying in higher grades, a new study found many children experiencing the problem from the very beginning of their school.
Researchers from the University of Chicago examined students studying in the first and second grades and found even the first grade students experiencing fear of math. Apart from this, Sian Beilock, professor in psychology also found the math anxiety having a negative impact on high-achieving and good working memory students.
The researchers found worry and fear of math interrupt working memory and thus making them less successful compared to their peers, particularly in math performance.
"You can think of working memory as a kind of 'mental scratchpad' that allows us to 'work' with whatever information is temporarily flowing through consciousness," Beilock said, in a news release. "It's especially important when we have to do a math problem and juggle numbers in our head. Working memory is one of the major building blocks of IQ."
The findings are based on 88 first-graders and 66 second -graders. Researchers measured and recorded participants' academic abilities, working memory and fear of mathematics. Results showed about half of the bright or highest-achieving students having math anxiety. Though the problem was noticed among low- achieving or less talented students, it didn't affect their performance. According to the researchers, the lower-performing students depend up on working memory less compared with talented students.
"Early math anxiety may lead to a snowball effect that exerts an increasing cost on math achievement by changing students' attitudes and motivational approaches towards math, increasing math avoidance, and ultimately reducing math competence," Beilock wrote in the article.
According to the authors, the problem originates from the teachers and parents.
"Its development is probably tied to both social factors, such as a teachers' and parents' anxiety about their own math ability and a student's own numerical and spatial competencies," the authors wrote, in a statement.
After examining the cause- and- effect of the problem, the researchers also provide methods to help students with math anxiety. According to them, "expressive picture drawing "or "expressive picture writing" can help students to solve their anxiety problem.
