Samenvatting Ahmed et al.

Ahmed et al.


ABSTRACT
The present study examined the reciprocal relationships between self-concept and anxiety in
mathematics. […] The analysis showed a reciprocal relationship between self-concept and
anxiety in math (i.e., higher self-concept leads to lower anxiety, which in turn, leads to higher
self-concept). However, the magnitude of the path from anxiety to self-concept is almost half
of that from self-concept to anxiety. Overall, the results provide empirical support for the
theoretical notion that math self-concept and math anxiety are reciprocally related.

Math anxiety = an unpleasant feeling associated with numerical manipulations and math
problem solving.

Over the past decades, studies have shown that students' competence beliefs are among the
most significant predictors of math anxiety. Particularly, researchers have shown that domain
specific self-appraisal of ability such as self-concept and self-efficacy substantially predict
math anxiety.

Kip of het ei verhaal:
 Because the self-concept involves self-evaluation of one's knowledge and capability
to deal with demands of the environment, perceived incompetence signals that
environmental threat is imminent. Thus a low self-concept in math signifies that the
individual is ill-equipped to cope with demands of stressful situations involving math.
This suggests that causality flows from self-concept to anxiety
o (hier gaat het meeste onderzoek ook over)
 Another view is that because experience of anxiety is characterized by a distorted
self-image, an individual experiencing a high level of anxiety may judge his/her
capability in doing math as inadequate.
 Finally, the contemporary view assumes that the relationship between math self-
concept and math anxiety is reciprocal. Bandura's socio-cognitive theory
hypothesizes that as individuals experience higher levels of anxiety, they also tend to
report lower levels of self-competence; however, as their self-efficacy rises,
individuals report a corresponding decrease in anxiety. In a similar vein, Pekrun's
control-value theory of achievement emotions posits that self-appraisals of ability and
emotions are reciprocally related. Pekrun argues that appraisals trigger emotions and
emotions act on appraisals by activating emotion-congruent memory networks.
Similarly, Zeidner's transactional model of anxiety suggests that self-appraisal of
capability and anxiety is reciprocally related.

We expected self-concept to be reciprocally associated with anxiety such that self-concept
and anxiety would negatively predict each other over time. More specifically, we examined
the following research question: Does prior math self-concept predict subsequent math
anxiety negatively and vice versa?

Definities
 Math anxiety is defined as students' anxious reactions to three important achievement
situations: attending classes, studying or doing homework and taking exams or tests
based on Pekrun and colleagues' conceptualization of achievement emotions.
 Math selfconcept is defined as student's self-perception of their ability and their
expectancy to perform well in math based on work of Eccles and colleagues.

Resultaten
 The correlations between math anxiety and math self-concept at the three
measurement occasions were all significant and were all in the expected direction.
More importantly, the two cross-temporal correlations between selfconcept and
anxiety were all significant suggesting the need to examine reciprocal effects.