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Carey E, Hill F, Devine A, et al. The Chicken or the Egg? The Direction of the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance. Front Psychol. 2016;6:1987doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987.
Carey, E., Hill, F., Devine, A., & Szücs, D. (2015). The Chicken or the Egg? The Direction of the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance. Frontiers in psychology, 61987. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987
Carey, Emma, et al. "The Chicken or the Egg? The Direction of the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance." Frontiers in psychology vol. 6 (2015): 1987. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987
Carey E, Hill F, Devine A, Szücs D. The Chicken or the Egg? The Direction of the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance. Front Psychol. 2016 Jan 07;6:1987. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987. eCollection 2015. PMID: 26779093; PMCID: PMC4703847.
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Front Psychol. 2016 Jan 07;6:1987. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987. eCollection 2015.

The Chicken or the Egg? The Direction of the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance.

Frontiers in psychology

Emma Carey, Francesca Hill, Amy Devine, Dénes Szücs

Affiliations

  1. Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK.

PMID: 26779093 PMCID: PMC4703847 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01987

Abstract

This review considers the two possible causal directions between mathematics anxiety (MA) and poor mathematics performance. Either poor maths performance may elicit MA (referred to as the Deficit Theory), or MA may reduce future maths performance (referred to as the Debilitating Anxiety Model). The evidence is in conflict: the Deficit Theory is supported by longitudinal studies and studies of children with mathematical learning disabilities, but the Debilitating Anxiety Model is supported by research which manipulates anxiety levels and observes a change in mathematics performance. It is suggested that this mixture of evidence might indicate a bidirectional relationship between MA and mathematics performance (the Reciprocal Theory), in which MA and mathematics performance can influence one another in a vicious cycle.

Keywords: cognitive interference; debilitating anxiety; deficit theory; educational psychology; mathematics anxiety; mathematics performance; working memory

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