%0 Journal Article
%T Math Anxiety Questionnaire: Similar Latent Structure in Brazilian and German School Children
%A Guilherme Wood
%A Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas
%A Annelise J¨²lio-Costa
%A Let¨ªcia Rettore Micheli
%A Helga Krinzinger
%A Liane Kaufmann
%A Klaus Willmes
%A Vitor Geraldi Haase
%J Child Development Research
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/610192
%X Math anxiety is a relatively frequent phenomenon often related to low mathematics achievement and dyscalculia. In the present study, the German and the Brazilian versions of the Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (MAQ) were examined. The two-dimensional structure originally reported for the German MAQ, that includes both affective and cognitive components of math anxiety was reproduced in the Brazilian version. Moreover, mathematics anxiety also was found to increase with age in both populations and was particularly associated with basic numeric competencies and more complex arithmetics. The present results suggest that mathematics anxiety as measured by the MAQ presents the same internal structure in culturally very different populations. 1. Introduction Every student knows how unpleasant life can be when the mathematics test is approaching. Although there is no gold standard to measure the levels of math anxiety (MA) that should be considered maladaptive, depending on their intensity and duration, negative physiological reactions, effects, and thoughts regarding mathematics can be considered a form of performance-related phobia [1]. Correlations between MA and math achievement have been reported [2, 3] as well as bidirectional associations between MA and math performance on several time scales going from online or short-term to long-term effects. On the long term, low math achievement is an antecedent of MA [4, 5] but MA also interferes with math performance. MA leads to hastened performance on math tasks and avoidance of math activities and courses, resulting in lower math skills and choice of careers with less demanding curricular requirements regarding mathematics [6, 7]. Besides, successful treatment of MA leads to significant improvements in math performance [2]. Short-term, online effects of MA on math performance have also been described. Negative emotional and math-related primes have been shown to speed up math performance in children with math learning disability [8]. Other studies indicate that MA negatively interferes with math performance. Initial research showed that online effects of MA on math performance were more pronounced for tasks demanding higher levels of working memory resources, such as those involving transfer between columns [9]. Newer findings demonstrate, however, that MA also interferes with performance in more basic number processing tasks, such as magnitude comparison [10] and counting, but not subitizing [11]. In line with these last results, children with high MA display comparatively lower levels of frontoparietal and
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdr/2012/610192/