A longitudinal multi-method approach to understand the early development of math anxiety

在一个越来越依赖科学技术的社会里，精通数学是非常重要的。然而，各种各样的负面情绪可能会阻碍数学学习。数学焦虑是一种消极的数学情绪，引起了研究人员和教育工作者的极大关注。数学焦虑的学生在与数学相关的活动中会感到恐惧和忧虑。与没有数学焦虑的学生相比，这些学生的数学成绩和数学相关职业的参与度往往较低。数学焦虑不仅在学生群体中非常普遍，而且在教育早期就出现了，这可能对数学学习产生广泛而持久的负面影响。该项目的目标是更好地了解数学焦虑的早期发展，重点是确定哪些学生有风险以及何时有风险。该项目还将研究哪些个人和家庭因素可能会提高或降低早期数学焦虑发展的风险。从这项研究中产生的知识旨在为旨在促进积极的数学学习氛围的父母实践和干预提供信息。需要研究数学焦虑是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以支持早期识别有风险的学生的能力，并了解数学焦虑的增长模式。为了解决这些问题，本项目将采用多波纵向设计的多方法方法，提供小学前三年数学焦虑发展的全面和深入的知识。首先，该项目将使用跨越前三年正规学校教育的六波纵向设计，并结合先进的纵向建模，以提供对早期数学焦虑发展的平均趋势、异质性和时间的关键见解。其次，通过整合基于调查、观察和二元生理学数据，本项目将研究早期家庭数学学习环境的逐年累积变化如何预测数学焦虑的长期发展。该项目将探索父母在亲子数学互动过程中情绪表现和生理的实时变化，以帮助预测数学焦虑的实时波动。最后，认知评估和问卷调查将用于收集社会动机，情感和认知领域的各种儿童和父母层面因素的信息，以提供对数学焦虑早期发展的个人和环境过程的深入调查。总体而言，本项目将为科学理解学龄学生数学焦虑的早期发展做出重要贡献。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EDU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。

Proficiency in math is ever important in a society that increasingly relies on science and technology. Yet, a diverse range of negative emotions may develop to impede math learning. Math anxiety is such a negative math emotion that it is of great concern to researchers and educators. Students with math anxiety experience feelings of fear and apprehension in math-related activities. These students often have lower math achievement and lower participation in math-related careers compared to students without math anxiety. Math anxiety is not only highly prevalent in the student population, but it also emerges early in education, which may have broad and enduring negative impacts on math learning. The goal of this project is to better understand the early development of math anxiety, with a focus on identifying which students are at risk and when they are at risk. The project will also study what personal and family-level factors may elevate or reduce the risk for early math anxiety development. The knowledge generated from this research is intended to inform parenting practices and interventions that aim to promote a positive math learning climate.Research is needed on how math anxiety develops over time, to support a capacity to identify at-risk students early on and understand math anxiety growth patterns. To address these issues, this project will employ a multi-method approach in a multi-wave longitudinal design to provide comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of the development of math anxiety across the first three elementary school years. First, this project will use a six-wave longitudinal design spanning across the first three years of formal schooling in conjunction with advanced longitudinal modeling to provide critical insights into the average trend, heterogeneity, and timing in early math anxiety development. Second, by integrating survey-based, observational, and dyadic physiology data, this project will examine how the cumulative year-to-year changes in the early home math learning environment predict the long-term development of math anxiety. The project will explore moment-to-moment changes in parents' emotional displays and physiology during parent-child math interactions to help predict real-time fluctuation in math anxiety. Finally, cognitive assessments and questionnaires will be used to collect information on a diverse range of child- and parent-level factors in the socio-motivational, affective, and cognitive domains, to provide an in-depth investigation of the individual and environmental processes in the early development of math anxiety. Overall, this project will make critical contributions to the scientific understanding of the early development of math anxiety in school-aged students. This project is supported by NSF's EDU 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.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.