Female undergraduate physics students report higher science, spatial, math, and clinical anxiety than male students at both pre- and post-instruction¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Mixed-model ANOVA showed significant main effects of sex on all four anxiety measures, with females higher on every measure at both time points. → Ariel A. Gonzalez 2019
Evidence¶
Ariel A. Gonzalez 2019¶
Ariel A. Gonzalez, Katherine L. Bottenhorn, Jessica E. Bartley, Timothy Hayes, Michael C. Riedel, Taylor Salo, Elsa I. Bravo, Rosalie Odean, Alina Nazareth, Robert W. Laird, Matthew T. Sutherland, Eric Brewe, Shannon M. Pruden and Angela R. Laird. (2019). Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety. npj Science of Learning 4:18. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-019-0058-9
q3 · i? · associational · r2
Mixed-model ANOVA on anxiety questionnaires from 101 undergraduate physics students (46F, 55M) tested sex, time, and sex-by-time effects. The article reports significant main effects of sex, stating "Female students reported higher mean levels of anxiety on every measure compared with male students". Sex main effects were significant for science (F = 9.08, P = 0.003), spatial (F = 9.48), math (F = 12.42), and clinical anxiety (F = 5.45).
"These analyses demonstrated signi ficant main effects of sex on all measures of anxiety, including science, spatial, math, and clinical anxiety (Table 1). Female students reported higher mean levels of anxiety on every measure compared with male students at both pre-instruction and post-instruction"
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Gender — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause
Related Claims¶
- Change in anxiety across the semester is negatively correlated with course grade and GPA for male students but not female students — related
- Longitudinal change in spatial anxiety tracks declining SN–CEN connectivity in female students, while change in math anxiety tracks declining SN–CEN connectivity in male students — related
- Post-instruction math anxiety mediates the relation between DMN–SN connectivity and physics course grade in male students — related
- No significant sex differences in incoming GPA or physics course grade despite sex differences in anxiety — related
- Science anxiety increased significantly over the semester for both female and male physics students, with no sex-by-time interaction on any anxiety measure — related
- Male physics students show significant anxiety–tripartite-network connectivity correlations at pre- and post-instruction, while female students show none — related
- Anxiety is negatively correlated with physics course grade and GPA in sex-specific patterns at pre- and post-instruction — related
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