Preliminary evidence of intergenerational transmission of math anxiety: mothers' math anxiety relates to children's lower intrinsic math motivation and stronger attentional bias toward math stimuli¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 2 studies · 2 associational r1 · q2 · i2–i3
Currency · newest study 2017 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i3 Mothers' numerical task anxiety correlates with a larger congruency effect in children's single-digit trials (r= 0.47), indicating more attentional bias among children of more math-anxious mothers. → Daches Cohen L and Rubinsten O 2017 q2 i2 Mothers' math anxiety correlates negatively with children's intrinsic math motivation (r= −0.32). → Daches Cohen L and Rubinsten O 2017 (2)

Evidence¶

Daches Cohen L and Rubinsten O 2017¶

Daches Cohen L and Rubinsten O (2017) Mothers, Intrinsic Math Motivation, Arithmetic Skills, and Math Anxiety in Elementary School. Front. Psychol. 8:1939. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01939

q2 · i3 · associational · r1

Pearson correlation between mothers' and children's variables (Table 3) in the study of 27 mother-child pairs. The article states this means "children of mothers who report higher levels of math anxiety show more attentional bias toward math-related stimuli compared to children of mothers who report lower levels of math anxiety."

"higher levels of numerical task anxiety among mothers were related to a larger congruency effect in the single digit trials in the numerical dot-probe task ( r= 0.47, p < 0.01)."

Daches Cohen L and Rubinsten O 2017 (2)¶

Daches Cohen L and Rubinsten O (2017) Mothers, Intrinsic Math Motivation, Arithmetic Skills, and Math Anxiety in Elementary School. Front. Psychol. 8:1939. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01939

q2 · i2 · associational · r1

Pearson correlation analysis (Table 3). The article reports "mothers' math anxiety was found to have a significant negative correlation with children's intrinsic math motivation ( r = −0.32, p < 0.05)"; mothers' math course anxiety correlated at r= −0.43 with intrinsic math motivation.

"mothers' math anxiety was found to have a significant negative correlation with children's intrinsic math motivation ( r = −0.32, p < 0.05)"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Affect Regulation — outcome: instruction changes it
• Motivation — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Explicit and implicit measures of children's math anxiety are non-significantly correlated in this sample — related
• Implicitly measured math anxiety (attentional bias) in children is predicted by environmental factors, specifically mothers' numerical task anxiety and maternal pressure — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Intrinsic math motivation is positively correlated with arithmetic skills and negatively correlated with explicitly measured math anxiety in sixth graders — related
• Children's arithmetic skills are the strongest predictor of their explicitly measured math anxiety, with higher skills associated with lower anxiety — related
• Higher levels of maternal help, press for intellectual development, and monitoring are associated with poorer children's arithmetic skills — related
• Stigma awareness is associated with higher academic anxiety and lower intrinsic motivation among elementary-age children — related