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Mathematics Anxiety

The Phobus Mathematics Anxiety Inventory

 

The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) is a 98 item inventory intended to measure mathematics anxiety. Factor analysis by Rounds and Hendel ("Measurement anddimensionality of mathematics anxiety." Journal of CounselingPsychology, 1980, 27, 138-149. ) identified two components of mathematics anxiety (as defined by the MARS): Mathematics Test Anxiety (15 items loaded heavily) and Number Anxiety (15 items loaded heavily). The Phobus (one of the moons or Mars) inventory for mathematics anxiety makes use of 20 MARS items (10 selected from each factor, some modified) combined with an additional 10 new items designed to be compatible with MARS items and to measure a hypothesized new component of mathematics anxiety. Details of the items from the MARS inventory may be found in the Rounds & Hendel paper.
 

Selected MARS items

Items loading on Mathematics Test Anxiety

  1. Item 26
  2. Item 28
  3. Item 45
  4. Item 54
  5. Item 74
  6. Item 75
  7. Items 78 & 79: Modified to "Waiting to have a math test returned."
  8. Item 81
  9. Item 85
  10. Item 91

Items loading on Numerical Anxiety

  1. Item 1
  2. Item 7
  3. Item 8
  4. Item 33
  5. Item 48
  6. Item 59
  7. Item 63
  8. Item 64
  9. Item 65
  10. Item 90

New Phobus Items to measure Abstraction Anxiety

  1. Having to work a math problem that has x's and y's instead of 2's and 3's.
  2. Being told that everyone is familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem.
  3. Realizing that my psychology professor has just written some algebraic formulas on the chalk board.
  4. Being asked to solve the equation x2 - 5x + 6 = 0.
  5. Being asked to discuss the proof of a theorem about triangles.
  6. Trying to read a sentence full of symbols such as A = {x: |x-2| = 3, x is an Integer}
  7. Listening to a friend explain something they have just learned in calculus.
  8. Opening up a math book and not seeing any numbers, only letters, on an entire page.
  9. Reading a description from the college catalog of the topics to be covered in a math course.
  10. Having some one lend me a calculator to work a problem and not being able to tell which button to push to get the answer.

Summary

Factor analysis on the items using a varimax rotation and also using rotated equimax confirmed that the new items established a component of Phobus distinct from the two components extracted from the MARS items. All the new Phobus items had factor loadings of at least 0.5 under varimax rotation. As was expected test-retest reliability of the 98 item MARS was higher than the 30 item Phobus, but the test-retest reliability of Phobus was not significantly different from the predicted reliability of a reduced-to-30-items MARS.

A quick reading of the MARS is likely may convince many teachers that the items do not measure anxiety connected with secondary and college mathematics (as most of us normally perceive it). It is hoped that the 10 Abstraction Anxiety items may help to fill in a gap in MARS or encourage others to extend the construct. I have placed these 10 new Phobus items in the public domain. These 10 new Phobus items may be reproduced and used for any non-commercial, educational purpose.

November 1, 1998

-Ron Ferguson

This page last updated on Monday, August 25, 2003

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This page last updated on Monday, August 25, 2003 . Copyright © 2002 Ronald D. Ferguson