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在数学方面表现更差，也不太可能参加高级数学课程或从事科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)职业。因此，及早解决数学焦虑对于减轻以后生活中的负面影响很重要。该项目将开发和测试一种以学校为基础的干预措施，以减少儿童的数学焦虑。研究人员提出，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，而且焦虑的思维会使用工作记忆中有限的认知资源，而工作记忆是解决数学问题所必需的。因此，这个项目将测试干预后数学焦虑的任何减少是否会导致孩子们更少地避免数学，拥有更好的工作记忆技能，以及更好的数学表现。本项目将编制可用于缓解儿童数学焦虑的干预材料，并帮助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。本项目的第一个目标是开发数学焦虑干预。这项干预将调整现有的基于课堂的干预措施，并增加认知行为治疗干预措施中的暴露成分，这些干预措施对患有其他焦虑相关障碍的儿童有效。这项工作将包括编写一本儿童手册、主持人会议指南和主持人培训材料。在这一过程中，将对24-39岁的儿童进行干预部分的测试，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效果，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。二年级和三年级的教室将被随机分配到学校内，让他们的数学焦虑程度较高的学生(总共140名学生)参加小组干预，或者作为照常经营的控制组(总共140名学生)。在干预前后以及3个月和6个月后对儿童的数学焦虑、回避、工作记忆和数学成绩进行评估。结果将被用来检验这样一种理论，即干预导致的数学焦虑的变化与工作记忆的增加和数学回避的减少有关，这与数学成绩的提高有关。这一项目的发现将有助于理解数学焦虑在数学成绩中的作用，并有可能导致STEM劳动力参与率的长期增长。该项目得到了NSF的EHR核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。在基本、广泛和持久的关键领域进行投资：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM的参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该计划支持积累强有力的证据，为理解、构建理论以解释并建议干预和创新以应对教育中持续存在的挑战的努力提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.