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Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood

Children’s anxiety for situations requiring mathematical problem solving, a concept referred to as math anxiety, has a unique and detrimental impact on concurrent and long-term mathematics achievement and life success. Little is known about the factors that contribute to the emergence of math anxiet...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bosmans, Guy, De Smedt, Bert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26528233
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01596
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author Bosmans, Guy
De Smedt, Bert
author_facet Bosmans, Guy
De Smedt, Bert
author_sort Bosmans, Guy
collection PubMed
description Children’s anxiety for situations requiring mathematical problem solving, a concept referred to as math anxiety, has a unique and detrimental impact on concurrent and long-term mathematics achievement and life success. Little is known about the factors that contribute to the emergence of math anxiety. The current study builds on the hypothesis that math anxiety might reflect a maladaptive affect regulation mechanism that is characteristic for insecure attachment relationships. To test this hypothesis, 87 children primary school children (M(age) = 10.34 years; SD(age) = 0.63) filled out questionnaires measuring insecure attachment and math anxiety. They all completed a timed and untimed standardized test of mathematics achievement. Our data revealed that individual differences in math anxiety were significantly related to insecure attachment, independent of age, sex, and IQ. Both tests of mathematics achievement were associated with insecure attachment and this effect was mediated by math anxiety. This study is the first to indicate that math anxiety might develop in the context of insecure parent–child attachment relationships.
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spelling pubmed-46060492015-11-02 Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood Bosmans, Guy De Smedt, Bert Front Psychol Psychology Children’s anxiety for situations requiring mathematical problem solving, a concept referred to as math anxiety, has a unique and detrimental impact on concurrent and long-term mathematics achievement and life success. Little is known about the factors that contribute to the emergence of math anxiety. The current study builds on the hypothesis that math anxiety might reflect a maladaptive affect regulation mechanism that is characteristic for insecure attachment relationships. To test this hypothesis, 87 children primary school children (M(age) = 10.34 years; SD(age) = 0.63) filled out questionnaires measuring insecure attachment and math anxiety. They all completed a timed and untimed standardized test of mathematics achievement. Our data revealed that individual differences in math anxiety were significantly related to insecure attachment, independent of age, sex, and IQ. Both tests of mathematics achievement were associated with insecure attachment and this effect was mediated by math anxiety. This study is the first to indicate that math anxiety might develop in the context of insecure parent–child attachment relationships. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4606049/ /pubmed/26528233 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01596 Text en Copyright © 2015 Bosmans and De Smedt. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Bosmans, Guy
De Smedt, Bert
Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
title Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
title_full Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
title_fullStr Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
title_full_unstemmed Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
title_short Insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
title_sort insecure attachment is associated with math anxiety in middle childhood
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4606049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26528233
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01596
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