Do Girls Really Experience More Math Anxiety?

Aug. 27, 2013 — Girls report more math
anxiety on general survey measures but are
not actually more anxious during math classes
and exams, according to new research
forthcoming in Psychological Science , a journal
of the Association for Psychological Science.

Existing research suggests that females are
more anxious when it comes to mathematics
than their male peers, despite similar levels of
achievement. But education researchers
Thomas Götz and Madeleine Bieg of the
University of Konstanz and the Thurgau
University of Teacher Education and colleagues
identified a critical limitation of previous
studies examining math anxiety: They asked
students to describe more generalized
perceptions of mathematics anxiety, rather
than assessing anxiety during actual math
classes and exams.

To address this limitation, the researchers
conducted two studies in which they collected
data from approximately 700 students from
grades 5 to 11. In the first study, they
compared students' responses on two different
measures: A questionnaire measuring anxiety
about math tests, and their real-time self-
reports of anxiety directly before and during a
math exam. In the second study, they
compared questionnaire measures of math
anxiety with repeated real-time assessments
obtained during math classes via mobile
devices.

Findings from the two studies replicated prior
research and existing gender stereotypes,
showing that girls reported more math anxiety
than boys on generalized assessments, despite
similar math achievement.
However, the data obtained during math exams
and classes revealed that girls did not
experience more anxiety than boys in real-life
settings.
The data further suggest that lower self-
reported competence in mathematics may
underlie the discrepancy between the levels of
anxiety reported by girls in the two settings.

The researchers note that general
questionnaires may allow inaccurate beliefs
about math ability to negatively bias girls'
assessments of their math abilities and
exacerbate their math anxiety.
According to Götz, Bieg, and colleagues, these
results suggest that stereotyped beliefs
regarding math ability, rather than actual
ability or anxiety differences, may be largely
responsible for women not choosing to pursue
careers in math-intensive domains.
Co-authors include Oliver Ludtke of Humboldt
University Berlin (Germany), Reinhard Pekrun
of the University of Munich (Germany), and
Nathan C. Hall of McGill University (Canada).
This research was supported by grants from
the German Research Foundation to the fourth
author (Project for the Analysis of Learning
and Achievement in Mathematics Grants PE
320/11-1, PE 320/11-2, PE 320/11-3, and PE
320/11-4).

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