Math anxiety has both a direct negative effect and a WM-mediated indirect effect on children's verbal Math Reasoning, but only an indirect effect on Numerical Operations¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2–r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2017 · checked against its sources 2026-10-17 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? The Partial Mediation model fit MR significantly better than the Full Mediation model, indicating a direct math-anxiety effect on MR beyond WM. → Wu 2017 q3 i? For NO, removing direct paths caused no significant fit loss, so math anxiety acted only via WM there. → Wu 2017 (2)

Evidence¶

Wu 2017¶

Wu, S. S., Chen, L., Battista, C., Watts, A. K. S., Willcutt, E. G., & Menon, V. (2017). Distinct influences of affective and cognitive factors on children's non-verbal and verbal mathematical abilities. Cognition, 166, 118-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.016

q3 · i? · associational · r3

SEM comparison in the same 330-child sample; the best-fitting modified Partial Mediation model for MR included a significant negative direct path from math anxiety to MR (β = -0.25, z = -4.09) and "accounted for 60.4% variance in MR".

"given that the Full Mediation model resulted in a poorer fit to the data, and that the deviance test between the Full Mediation and Partial Mediation models was significant (χ2(2) = 28.718, p < 0.001), the Partial Mediation model provided a significantly better fit for MR."

Wu 2017 (2)¶

Wu, S. S., Chen, L., Battista, C., Watts, A. K. S., Willcutt, E. G., & Menon, V. (2017). Distinct influences of affective and cognitive factors on children's non-verbal and verbal mathematical abilities. Cognition, 166, 118-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.016

q3 · i? · associational · r2

SEM model comparison for NO in the same sample; the direct math-anxiety path was dropped, consistent with full mediation of anxiety via WM for non-verbal computation.

"Although a v2 deviation test did not reveal a significant difference between the Partial Mediation (Model 3) and Full Mediation models for NO (χ2(3) = 2.782, p > 0.05), the AIC and BIC values both suggest that the Full Mediation model was the best fitting model for NO"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Academic Anxiety — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Affect Regulation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Math anxiety's direct effect on math performance emerges in grade 4 but not grade 3, suggesting a developmental trajectory — related
• Working memory fully mediates the effects of math anxiety and attention on children's non-verbal Numerical Operations — related
• In a cross-sectional model, attention problems relate to both non-verbal and verbal math performance only indirectly, through working memory (and, for MR, reading) — related
• Working memory mediates the indirect effects of anxiety on math performance — a broader claim this one bears on
• Math anxiety partially mediates the relation between attention problems and both math outcomes — related
• Mathematical metacognition statistically mediates the association between mathematics anxiety and children's word problem solving after controlling for IQ — related
• Math anxiety compromises working memory only when the anxiety is aroused by computation-based tasks, not on verbal span assessments — related
• The association between math anxiety and math performance is significant in Grade 3 after accounting for general anxiety — related
• Math anxiety relates more strongly to Mathematical Reasoning than to Numerical Operations in second and third graders — related
• Cascade models in which IQ mediates the WM-to-achievement path fit comparably to, but not significantly better than, the original correlated models — related
• Math anxiety has a direct effect on arithmetic calculation above and beyond the indirect pathways — related
• The direct path from mathematics anxiety to word problem solving is non-significant once metacognition is modeled — related
• Modeling mathematics anxiety as the mediator of metacognition's effect on word problem solving yields no mediating effect — related
• Math anxiety explained variance in posttest monitoring judgments beyond trait anxiety, supporting its distinctness from general anxiety — related
• Math anxiety correlates weakly with working memory (r = −.18), and WM's mediating role between anxiety and math achievement is negligible — reports the opposite
• Type of mathematics assessed (Numerical Operations vs Mathematical Reasoning) does not significantly influence effect sizes — related
• Higher mathematics test anxiety predicts earlier practice-session exit, mediating lower learning gains in an adaptive math program — related
• Text-structure knowledge in passages and word problems mediates acquisition and cross-domain transfer effects — related