Examining the Mechanisms of the Math Anxiety-Math Achievement Link through a School-Based Grades 2-3 Intervention

许多儿童、青少年和成年人都有数学焦虑症。研究表明，随着年龄的增长，数学焦虑的孩子通常会继续经历数学焦虑。患有数学焦虑症的人往往数学表现更差，不太可能参加高等数学课程或从事科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）职业。因此，尽早解决数学焦虑对于减轻以后生活中的负面影响很重要。该项目将开发并测试一种基于学校的干预措施，以减少儿童的数学焦虑。研究人员认为，数学焦虑会导致数学成绩下降，因为它会导致人们回避数学，而且焦虑的想法会使用工作记忆中有限的认知资源，而这些资源是解决数学问题所必需的。因此，本项目将测试干预是否减少了数学焦虑，是否会导致儿童更少地逃避数学，具有更好的工作记忆技能，并在数学方面表现更好。本项目将制作可用于缓解儿童数学焦虑的干预材料，并有助于更好地了解数学焦虑对数学回避、工作记忆和数学成绩的长期影响。这个项目的第一个目标是开发数学焦虑干预。这种干预将适应现有的基于课堂的干预，并增加认知行为治疗干预的暴露成分，这对患有其他焦虑相关疾病的儿童是有效的。这项工作将包括编写儿童工作手册、引导者会议指南和引导者培训材料。在此过程中，将对24-39名儿童进行干预成分测试，以告知对材料的修订。第二个目标是测试干预对数学焦虑的影响，以及是否有任何影响导致工作记忆和数学回避的变化，以及随后的数学成绩。将在学校内随机分配二年级和三年级的教室，让有高度数学焦虑的学生（总共140名学生）参加小组干预，或在一切照旧的对照组（总共140名学生）。在干预前后以及3个月和6个月后评估儿童的数学焦虑、回避、工作记忆和数学成绩。结果将用于验证干预诱导的数学焦虑变化与工作记忆的增加和数学回避的减少有关的理论，这与数学成绩的提高有关。该项目的研究结果将对理解数学焦虑在数学成绩中的作用产生影响，并有可能导致STEM劳动力参与的长期增加。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目支持积累有力的证据，为理解、构建理论进行解释提供依据，并提出干预和创新建议，以应对教育中持续存在的挑战。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many children, adolescents, and adults experience math anxiety. Research has shown that math-anxious children typically continue to experience math anxiety as they get older. People with math anxiety tend to perform more poorly in math and are less likely to take advanced math courses or pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Thus, tackling math anxiety early on is important for mitigating negative impacts later in life. This project will develop and test a school-based intervention to decrease children’s math anxiety. Researchers have suggested that math anxiety leads to lower math achievement because it leads people to avoid math, and because anxious thoughts use the limited cognitive resources in working memory, which are required for solving math problems. Therefore, this project will test whether any reduction in math anxiety from the intervention leads children to avoid math less, have better working memory skills, and perform better in math. This project will produce intervention materials that can be used to alleviate children’s math anxiety and help to better understand long-term effects of math anxiety on math avoidance, working memory, and math achievement.The first goal of this project is to develop the math anxiety intervention. This intervention will adapt an existing classroom-based intervention and add exposure components from cognitive behavioral therapy interventions, which are effective for children with other anxiety-related disorders. The work will involve developing a child workbook, facilitator session guides, and facilitator training materials. During this process, intervention components will be tested with 24-39 children to inform revisions to the materials. The second goal is to test the effect of the intervention on math anxiety and whether any effect leads to changes in working memory and math avoidance, and subsequently math achievement. Second- and third-grade classrooms will be randomly assigned within schools to have their students with high math anxiety (140 students total) participate in the small-group intervention or be in a business-as-usual control group (140 students total). Children’s math anxiety, avoidance, working memory, and math achievement will be assessed before and after the intervention, as well as 3 and 6 months later. Results will be used to test the theory that intervention-induced changes in math anxiety relate to increased working memory and decreased math avoidance, which relate to improved math achievement. The findings from this project will have implications for understanding the role of math anxiety in math achievement, and have the potential to lead to long-term increases in STEM workforce participation.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.