ANTECEDENT EVENTS PREDICTIVE OF MATHEMATICS ANXIETY: A MIXED-METH-ODS ANALYSIS OF THE ORIGINS OF MATHOPHOBIAAS PERCEIVED BY FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS by

Heather Harvey Marshall

The purpose of this study was to explore affective, cognitive, societal, parental, and educational factors that contributed to mathematics anxiety among fifth-grade students (n = 279). Through an instrumental collective case study design, a sequential explanatory strategy was used to collect multiple facets of data. In Phase I of the study, quantitative methods were used to generate descriptive statistics, conduct correlational analyses, and derive a sample from a pool of fifth-graders in a school system in northeast Georgia. Participants in Sample 1 (s₁ = 250) completed the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale for Elementary Students (MARS-E) (Suinn, Taylor, & Edwards, 1988). Demographic information was also collected, as were scores from the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). CRCT and MARS-E scores were found to be moderately and inversely related and were significant at the .01 level (r = -.348, r₂ = .121, p < .001). P-values for independent t-tests suggested participants whose parents pay full price for lunch outperformed students who received a free or reduced-price lunch on the CRCT as indicated by significant mean differences (p < .001). Non-special education students outperformed special education students on the CRCT indicated by significant mean differences (p < .001). Mean differences on the MARS-E were significant (p = .001) and revealing special education students exhibit higher mathematics anxiety than regular education students. Gifted students outperformed non-gifted students on the CRCT (p < .001) and revealed significantly lower mathematics anxiety (p = .018). Variance differences were also observed for special education and gifted students. Phase II employed qualitative methods in an attempt to explain phenomena. Students were observed in their classroom environments and were interviewed in small focus groups (s₂ = 17). Image-based research methods were utilized with the final sample of students (s₃ = 8) to explore results in depth. Pupils’ views templates (Wall, Higgins, & Packard, 2007) were used as a mediating tool to gather students’ stories of mathophobia through cartoon-elicited interviews. With participant-produced photographs in hand, students provided photo-feedback, and photo-essays were assembled using images and text from photo-elicited interviews. Qualitative analysis revealed effects of parents, teachers, peers, society, and self as mediating factors of mathematics anxiety. Antecedent events included teacher abuse, lack of content knowledge, poor pedagogical skills, negative parent attitudes, embarrassment in front of peers, negative self-talk, and lack of mathematics self-efficacy. Implications for policy, teacher training, educational leadership programs, school administrators, school counselors, mathematics teachers, parents, and image-based research were discussed.