ABSTRACT Math anxiety negatively predicts young children’s math achievement. While some researchers have suggested that math anxiety may stem from poor math ability, others have argued that math anxiety occurs at all levels of math ability. An important question is whether math anxiety predicts math achievement over and above foundational math skills. We sought to address this issue by examining whether math anxiety predicts future math achievement, controlling for number line estimation, a foundational math skill that predicts future math achievement. We found that 1st graders’ math anxiety predicts their math achievement in 1st through 3rd grade, controlling for their number line estimation at the beginning of 1st grade. This finding suggests that math anxiety contributes to future math learning over and above an important foundational math skill. Additionally, we examined whether there are age differences in the relation of first-grade math anxiety to number line estimation at various scales in order to test the hypothesis that the negative effect of early math anxiety on math performance depends on task difficulty. In support of this hypothesis, early math anxiety more closely related to the 0–100 number line task in 1st graders but to the 0–1000 number line task in 3rd graders, suggesting that math anxiety most strongly relates to math skills that are at the cusp of children’s understanding at particular grade levels. Together, these findings underscore the importance of fostering young children’s positive emotions toward math in addition to providing them with a strong cognitive foundation for math learning.

中文翻译：

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儿童的数学焦虑预测他们的数学成绩超过了关键的基础数学技能

摘要 数学焦虑对幼儿的数学成绩有负面影响。虽然一些研究人员认为数学焦虑可能源于数学能力差，但其他人则认为数学焦虑发生在所有水平的数学能力上。一个重要的问题是，数学焦虑是否能预测超出基础数学技能的数学成就。我们试图通过检查数学焦虑是否能预测未来的数学成绩来解决这个问题，控制数线估计，这是一种预测未来数学成绩的基础数学技能。我们发现 1 年级学生的数学焦虑预测了他们在 1 到 3 年级的数学成绩，控制了他们在 1 年级开始时的数轴估计。这一发现表明，除了重要的基础数学技能之外，数学焦虑还有助于未来的数学学习。此外，为了检验早期数学焦虑对数学成绩的负面影响取决于任务难度的假设，我们检查了一年级数学焦虑与数轴估计的关系是否存在年龄差异。为支持这一假设，早期数学焦虑与一年级学生的 0-100 数字线任务更密切相关，但与三年级学生的 0-1000 数字线任务密切相关，这表明数学焦虑与数学技能最密切相关。儿童在特定年级理解的风口浪尖。一起，