Anxiety, Motivation, and Competence in Mathematics and Reading for Children With and Without Learning Difficulties
Name
fpsyg-12-704821.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
351.69 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
eb8ca5e6157a3abd9e21375c2340a6d7
Author(s)
Pollack, Courtney
Wilmot, Dayna
Centanni, Tracy M
Halverson, Kelly
Frosch, Isabelle
D'Mello, Anila M
Romeo, Rachel R
Imhof, Andrea
Capella, Jimmy
Wade, Karolina
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Citation
Pollack, Courtney, Wilmot, Dayna, Centanni, Tracy M, Halverson, Kelly, Frosch, Isabelle et al. 2021. "Anxiety, Motivation, and Competence in Mathematics and Reading for Children With and Without Learning Difficulties." Frontiers in Psychology, 12.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Knowledge of the relations among learners' socio-emotional characteristics and competencies as they engage in mathematics and reading is limited, especially for children with academic difficulties. This study examined the relations between anxiety, motivation, and competence in mathematics and reading, within and across domains, in an academically-diverse set of 8–13-year-old learners (n = 146). To measure anxiety and motivation across domains, we paired existing measures of math anxiety and reading motivation with researcher-developed analogs for reading anxiety and math motivation. Participants completed standardized assessments of mathematics and reading, anxiety and motivation surveys for math and reading, and a measure of nonverbal cognitive ability. Results showed high internal consistency for all anxiety and motivation scales (Cronbach's alpha = 0.76–0.91). Pearson correlations showed that within and across domains, participants with higher competence had lower anxiety and higher motivation. Higher anxiety was also associated with lower motivation. Regression analyses showed that for both math and reading, within-domain motivation was a stronger predictor of competence than anxiety. There was a unidirectional across-domain relation: socio-emotional characteristics for reading predicted math competence, after accounting for nonverbal cognitive ability, age, gender, and within-domain anxiety and motivation. Results contribute to knowledge of the socio-emotional characteristics of children with and without learning difficulties in association with reading and math activities. Implications of a unidirectional socio-emotional link between the two domains can advance research and theory of the relations among socio-emotional characteristics and competence for academically-diverse learners.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704821
