Table 4.
Math Anxiety differences with responses provided by 10 or more participants on the Support Scale Open-ended Questions.
| Open-ended question response | Mean (SD) | t-value (df) | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SOMEONE DID SOMETHING TO INCREASE MATH CONFIDENCE | |||
| No (n = 14, 10.9%)† | 73.07 (16.09) | ||
| Yes (n = 114, 88.4%) | 67.79 (19.18) | −0.99(126) | 0.325 |
| Encouragement from a teacher (n = 38, 29.5%) | 62.47 (18.26) | −1.91(50) | 0.062 |
| Receiving extra help from a teacher (n = 20, 15.5%) | 73.93 (19.90) | 0.13(32) | 0.895 |
| Encouragement from a parent (n = 20, 15.5%) | 62.87 (23.96) | −1.39(32) | 0.175 |
| Receiving extra help from a parent (n = 17, 13.2%) | 69.67 (19.20) | −0.53(29) | 0.602 |
| Being asked to tutor others (n = 15, 11.6%) | 68.47 (20.41) | −0.67(27) | 0.508 |
| Being Involved in math enrichment (n = 14, 10.9%) | 61.78 (19.66) | −1.66(26) | 0.108 |
| Being involved in Math competitions (n = 12, 9.3%) | 56.33 (15.46) | −2.69(24) | 0.013 |
| 2. SOMEONE DID SOMETHING TO DECREASE MATH CONFIDENCE | |||
| No (n = 51, 39.5%)† | 61.86 (18.40) | 3.54 (126) | 0.001* |
| Yes (n = 77, 59.7%) | 73.23 (17.37) | ||
| Having a math teacher who made them feel poorly about themselves (n = 20, 15.5%) | 77.60 (18.10) | 3.26 (69) | 0.002 |
| Lack of encouragement, praise, support, and help (n = 11, 8.5%) | 71.36 (20.78) | 1.52 (60) | 0.134 |
| 9. EVENTS AT HOME STAND OUT FOR YOU IN SHAPING YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT MATH? | |||
| No (n = 15, 11.6%)† | 67.24 (12.07) | ||
| Yes (n = 111, 86%) | 68.22 (19.54) | 0.19 (124) | 0.850 |
| Parents' help (n = 29, 22.5%) | 56.83 (15.65) | −2.25 (42) | 0.030** |
| Parents' encouragement and praise (n = 22, 17.1%) | 64.34 (18.88) | 0.53 (35) | 0.603 |
| Having parents or family members that were good at math (n = 21, 16.3%) | 67.71 (21.38) | 0.08 (34) | 0.938 |
| Parents stressing importance of math and to do well (n = 12, 9.3%) | 70.75 (18.14) | 0.60 (25) | 0.552 |
| Parents stressing importance to do well in general (n = 10, 7.8%) | 64.10 (20.18) | 0.49 (23) | 0.630 |
Means, t-values, and p-value. Complete text of the open-ended questions can be found in Appendix B (Supplementary Material).
*
p < 0.01.
**
p < 0.01 after controlling for general and test anxiety.
†
Indicates the comparison group for all analyses within that question.