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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...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4606049 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT bosmansguy insecureattachmentisassociatedwithmathanxietyinmiddlechildhood AT desmedtbert insecureattachmentisassociatedwithmathanxietyinmiddlechildhood |