PSYCHOMETRIC ASPECTS OF THE BRAZILIAN MATH ANXIETY SCALE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59099/prpub.2022.2Keywords:
Mathematics education; Anxiety; Student attitudes; School phobia; PsychometricsAbstract
The present study analyzed the reliability and factor structure of the Brazilian Math Anxiety Scale, as well as item parameters assessed by Rasch analysis. The Scale was applied to high school students from a public school in the countryside of Pará through an online form. The scale showed good reliability (α = 0.947), and a two-factor structure, preliminarily identified as Numerical Anxiety and Anxiety to Math Assessment. The items of the factor Anxiety to Math Assessment showed higher mean and lower difficulty than the items of the factor Numerical Anxiety. These results suggest that the Scale is reliable, robust, and able to capture the latent structure of the Math Anxiety construct.
References
Alexander, L., & Cobb, R. (1987). Identification of the dimensions and predictors of mathematics anxiety among college students. Journal of Human Behavior and Learning, 4, 25–32.
Alexander, L., & Martray, C. R. (1989). The development of an abbreviated version of the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 22, 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.1989.12022923 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.1989.12022923
Arifin, W. N. (2022). Sample size calculator (web). https://wnarifin.github.io/ssc/ssalpha.html
Ball, L. C., Cribbie, R. A., & Steele, J. R. (2013). Beyond gender differences: Using tests of equivalence to evaluate gender similarities. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37, 147–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684313480483 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684313480483
Bonett, D. G. (2002). Sample size requirements for testing and estimating coefficient alpha. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 27, 335–340. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/10769986027004335
Bortoluzzo, A. B., Matavelli, I. R., & Madalozzo, R. (2016). Determinantes da Distribuição da (Des)igualdade de Gênero entre os Estados Brasileiros. Estudos Econômicos (São Paulo), 46, 161–188. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-416146115air DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-416146115air
Carey, E., Hill, F., Devine, A., & Szücs, D. (2016). The Chicken or the Egg? The Direction of the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1987. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987
Carmo, J. dos S., & Ferraz, A. C. T. (2012). Ansiedade relacionada à matemática e diferenças de gênero: Uma análise da literatura. Psicologia Da Educação, 35, 53–71.
Carmo, J. dos S., Figueiredo, R. M. E., Nogueira, M. F., Cunha, L. O., Araújo, P. V. S., & Ferranti, M. C. (2008). Diferentes intensidades de ansiedade relatadas por estudantes do Ensino Fundamental II, em situações típicas do estudo da Matemática. In W. C. M. P. Silva (Ed.), Sobre comportamento e cognição: Aspectos teóricos, metodológicos e de formação em análise do comportamento e terapia cognitiva (pp. 213–221). ESETEC.
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–333. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310555
Dias, V. de S., & Nascimento, V. (2019). Tradução comentada da Escala de Ansiedade à Matemática (EAM) para a Língua Brasileira de Sinais (LIBRAS): Questões teóricas e implicações formativas. Revista Espaço, 51, 59–81. https://doi.org/10.20395/re.v0i51.600 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17771/PUCRio.TradRev.45942
Downey, R. G., & King, C. V. (1998). Missing Data in Likert Ratings: A Comparison of Replacement Methods. The Journal of General Psychology, 125, 175–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309809595542 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309809595542
Fassis, D., Mendes, A. C., & Carmo, J. dos S. (2014). Diferentes graus de ansiedade à matemática e desempenho escolar no ensino fundamental. Psicologia Da Educação, 39, 47–61.
Hair, J., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R. L., & Black, W. C. (1995). Multivariate data analysis (4th Ed.). Prentice-Hall.
Harpe, S. E. (2015). How to analyze Likert and other rating scale data. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 7, 836–850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2015.08.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2015.08.001
Hyde, J. S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 581–592. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581
Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., Ryan, M., Frost, L. A., & Hopp, C. (1990). Gender comparisons of mathematics attitudes and affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14, 299–324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1990.tb00022.x
Kahn, J. H. (2006). Factor Analysis in Counseling Psychology Research, Training, and Practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 34, 684–718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286347 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286347
Kaiser, H. F. (1970). A second generation little jiffy. Psychometrika, 35, 401–415. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291817
Luttenberger, S., Wimmer, S., & Paechter, M. (2018). Spotlight on math anxiety. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 11, 311–322. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S141421 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S141421
Mendes, A. C. (2012). Identificação de graus de ansiedade à Matemática em estudantes do ensino fundamental e médio: Contribuições à validação de uma escala de ansiedade à Matemática [Universidade Federal de São Carlos]. https://repositorio.ufscar.br/handle/ufscar/6026
Mendes, A. C. (2016). Ansiedade à matemática: Evidências de validade de ferramentas de avaliação e intervenção [Universidade Federal de São Carlos]. https://repositorio.ufscar.br/handle/ufscar/8416
Mendes, A. C., & Carmo, J. dos S. (2011). Estudantes com grau extremo de ansiedade à matemática: Identificação de casos e implicações educacionais. Psicologia Da Educação, 33, 119–133.
Plake, B. S., & Parker, C. S. (1982). The Development and Validation of a Revised Version of the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 42, 551–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316448204200218 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/001316448204200218
Pletzer, B., Wood, G., Scherndl, T., Kerschbaum, H. H., & Nuerk, H.-C. (2016). Components of Mathematics Anxiety: Factor Modeling of the MARS30-Brief. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 91. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00091 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00091
Revelle, W. (2019). psych: Procedures for Psychological, Psychometric, and Personality Research [R package].
Rounds, J. B., & Hendel, D. D. (1980). Measurement and dimensionality of mathematics anxiety. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27, 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.27.2.138 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.27.2.138
Seol, H. (2020). snowRMM: Rasch Mixture Model for jamovi [jamovi module]. https://github.com/hyunsooseol/snowRMM
Tobias, S. (1978). Overcoming math anxiety. W. W. Norton & Company.
Willse, J. (2014). mixRasch: Mixture Rasch Models with JMLE [R package]. https://cran.r-project.org/package=mixRasch
Worthington, R. L., & Whittaker, T. A. (2006). Scale Development Research: A Content Analysis and Recommendations for Best Practices. The Counseling Psychologist, 34, 806–838. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006288127 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006288127

Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Ivonilce Brelaz-da-Silva, Caio Maximino

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors agree to the following terms of PLURAL - Revista de Psicologia UNESP Bauru:
Articles submitted must be original and will be published for the first time by Revista Plural, but authors will retain copyright. The work will be simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution CC-By 4.0 International License to allow the work to be shared with acknowledgement of authorship and first publication by this journal.
Authors are allowed to enter into additional contracts separately, for example, to publish in an institutional repository or as a book chapter, as long as both the acknowledgement of authorship and initial publication in this journal are detailed and recorded.
Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online in institutional repositories (preprints) or on their personal website.