TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender Differences in Mathematics Anxiety Across Cultures
T2 - A Univariate Analysis of Variance Among Samples from Twelve Countries
AU - Sarfo, Jacob Owusu
AU - Garcia-Santillan, Arturo
AU - Adusei, Henry
AU - Molchanova, Violetta S.
AU - Drushlyak, Marina
AU - Semenikhina, Olena
AU - Donyeh, Philip Soyiri
AU - Zand, Somayeh
AU - Najafi, Reza
AU - Enea, Violeta
AU - Malik, Sadia
AU - Ashraf, Farzana
AU - Malik, Najma Iqbal
AU - Ansah, Edward Wilson
AU - Wongcharee, Hattaphan
AU - Egara, Felix O.
AU - Tipandjan, Arun
AU - Cudjoe, Josephine
AU - Azam, Uzma
AU - Hassan, Mohammed Salah
AU - Helmy, Mai
AU - Vally, Zahir
N1 - Funding Information:
We are indebted to all participants for sharing their MA perceptions with us.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Academic Publishing House Researcher s.r.o. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2020/12/23
Y1 - 2020/12/23
N2 - Mathematics anxiety (MA) has a debilitating impact on learning, achievement, mental health, and the future career life of students. Though MA is a popular research theme, there is little agreement among researchers regarding the cross-cultural effect of gender. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perceived MA differences among males and females across cultures using the Anxiety Towards Math Scale (ATMS; Muñoz and Mato, 2007). Data were collected between October 2019 and September 2020) from students (N = 4,340) in 12 countries. Using univariate analysis of variance, the results indicate that gender has a significant main effect on MA with females recording higher mean scores than males, [71.816 > 68.118]. Examining the interaction effect of gender and location, significant differences in MA scores exist between males and females across all locations except for Egypt, Malaysia, and Nigeria (Enugu State). Conversely, females reported significantly higher MA scores than males in the rest of the locations, except Iran (Tehran and Qom) and Pakistan (Faisalabad). Gender-based ranking of the top-three locations with high MA scores indicates that females, starting from Malaysia, Thailand (Bangkok), and Nigeria (Enugu State) ranked the highest. Similarly, males beginning from Malaysia, Nigeria (Enugu State), and Thailand (Bangkok) ranked the top-three in MA. The implications are that mathematics teachers need to adopt different culturally-appropriate and gender-focused interventions to support students with MA challenges. Though interpreting the results from this survey need to de done with caution due to the smaller community and national online samples, the role of cross-cultural gender differences in MA cannot be overlooked.
AB - Mathematics anxiety (MA) has a debilitating impact on learning, achievement, mental health, and the future career life of students. Though MA is a popular research theme, there is little agreement among researchers regarding the cross-cultural effect of gender. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perceived MA differences among males and females across cultures using the Anxiety Towards Math Scale (ATMS; Muñoz and Mato, 2007). Data were collected between October 2019 and September 2020) from students (N = 4,340) in 12 countries. Using univariate analysis of variance, the results indicate that gender has a significant main effect on MA with females recording higher mean scores than males, [71.816 > 68.118]. Examining the interaction effect of gender and location, significant differences in MA scores exist between males and females across all locations except for Egypt, Malaysia, and Nigeria (Enugu State). Conversely, females reported significantly higher MA scores than males in the rest of the locations, except Iran (Tehran and Qom) and Pakistan (Faisalabad). Gender-based ranking of the top-three locations with high MA scores indicates that females, starting from Malaysia, Thailand (Bangkok), and Nigeria (Enugu State) ranked the highest. Similarly, males beginning from Malaysia, Nigeria (Enugu State), and Thailand (Bangkok) ranked the top-three in MA. The implications are that mathematics teachers need to adopt different culturally-appropriate and gender-focused interventions to support students with MA challenges. Though interpreting the results from this survey need to de done with caution due to the smaller community and national online samples, the role of cross-cultural gender differences in MA cannot be overlooked.
KW - cross-cultural study
KW - gender differences
KW - mathematics
KW - mathematics anxiety
KW - univariate analysis of variance
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U2 - 10.13187/ejced.2020.4.878
DO - 10.13187/ejced.2020.4.878
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116439885
SN - 2304-9650
VL - 9
SP - 878
EP - 885
JO - European Journal of Contemporary Education
JF - European Journal of Contemporary Education
IS - 4
ER -