Abstract:
Previous research has suggested that math anxiety may contribute to poor math performance by interfering with working memory. However, only a limited number of studies investigated the mediating role of working memory in the math anxiety-math performance link in school-aged children. Unlike math anxiety, ego-resiliency is a personality resource that promotes the management of challenges and has been positively associated with math performance and negatively with anxiety. Nevertheless, there is still limited understanding regarding the specific role of ego-resiliency in math learning and how it relates to math anxiety. This study aimed to investigate conjunctly the interplay between primary school children\'s ego-resiliency, math anxiety, working memory, and performance on two different math tasks (i.e., arithmetic task and word problem-solving task), after controlling for general anxiety and age. The study involved 185 Italian children from grades 3 to 5. Serial multi-mediational analyses revealed that: (1) ego-resiliency has a positive indirect effect on math achievement through two paths - math anxiety, and math anxiety and working memory; (2) the study replicated previous findings showing that working memory partially mediated the relationship between math anxiety and math performance; (3) similar patterns of results were found for both math skills. The study identifies ego-resiliency as a possible protective factor in the development of math anxiety and suggests that ego-resiliency could be worth considering when designing interventions aimed at reducing negative emotions towards mathematics.
摘要:
先前的研究表明,数学焦虑可能会干扰工作记忆,从而导致数学表现不佳。然而,只有有限数量的研究调查了工作记忆在学龄儿童数学焦虑-数学表现联系中的中介作用。不像数学焦虑,自我弹性是一种人格资源,可促进挑战的管理,并与数学表现呈正相关,与焦虑呈负相关。然而,关于自我弹性在数学学习中的具体作用以及它如何与数学焦虑相关的理解仍然有限。本研究旨在调查小学生自我弹性之间的相互作用,数学焦虑,工作记忆,和两个不同数学任务的表现(即,算术任务和单词问题解决任务),控制一般焦虑和年龄后。这项研究涉及185名3至5年级的意大利儿童。系列多中介分析显示:(1)自我弹性对数学成绩有积极的间接影响,通过两个路径-数学焦虑,数学焦虑和工作记忆;(2)该研究复制了先前的发现,表明工作记忆部分介导了数学焦虑与数学表现之间的关系;(3)两种数学技能的结果模式相似。该研究将自我弹性确定为数学焦虑发展的可能保护因素,并建议在设计旨在减少对数学的负面情绪的干预措施时,值得考虑自我弹性。