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Mathematics Anxiety and Personality Characteristics of Secondary Schools

Students in Lagos State, Nigeria

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 Journal of Positive Psychology and Counselling, Vol 6. 2020
Rapid Communication Edition

Mathematics Anxiety and Personality Characteristics of Secondary Schools Students in

Lagos State, Nigeria

Afusat Olanike Busari

Department of Guidance and Counselling,
Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
[email protected] (+238088979187)

Sabainah Oyebola Akinoso

Department of Science and Technology Education,
(Mathematics Education), Faculty of Education,
University of Lagos, Nigeria
[email protected] (+2348035041573)

Abstract

Mathematics is viewed in more abstract form; this makes students dread the subject develop and
possess a different level of anxiety toward the subject. The anxiety developed toward the subject
lead to poor performance in mathematics. This poor performance in mathematics is affecting a
lot of things in society, precisely, the life carrier, scientific and technological development and
the development of the Nation. This study investigated the relationship between mathematics
anxiety and personality characteristics of secondary school students’ performance in
mathematics and their influence on their gender. The study adopted a descriptive design of
survey type. Four hundred and forty - six secondary school students were selected from ten
secondary school II in one district selected randomly in Lagos state which constitutes the sample
of the study. Two instruments which include Mathematics Anxiety Inventory and Multi-
Dimensional Personality were used in this study. The reliability coefficients of the two
instruments with the use of Cronbach Alpha were given respectively as 0.88 and 0.79. Pearson’s
Product Moment Analysis, T-test, and Analysis of Variance were used to analyze the data
collected. There was a strong, positive correlation between Mathematics Anxiety of students and
Multi-Dimensional Personality of students (r=.965, n=446, p=.000). There was no significant
relationship between the mathematics anxiety of male and female students, the significant
relationship doesn’t exist between the personality characteristics of male and female students. It
was discovered in this study that, both mathematics anxiety and personality characteristics had a
significant relationship with the age of the students. It was recommended among others that
mathematics teachers should teach this subject using different strategies that will make the
students active, using real life objects and ICT tools to minimize anxiety in mathematics class.

Keywords: Mathematics anxiety, multi-dimensional personality, Secondary school students

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Introduction

One of the biggest hurdles many students face in their academic careers in mathematics, a
discipline that is intertwined in almost every natural and social science, as well as many health
and business-related fields is fear. Fears related to this fundamental area of study continue to be
seen as a major cause for not pursuing academic goals that rely heavily on mathematics,
therefore minimizing vocational opportunities for individuals harboring these feelings of anxiety,
commonly referred to as mathematics anxiety. As a result of such views, mathematics anxiety is
often the reason used for the poor performance of a wide range of individuals in settings where
mathematics-related skills are essential. Richardson and Suinn (1972) stated that mathematics
anxiety “involves feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with manipulation of numbers and
the solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations”.

Mathematics anxiety is the feeling of tension interferes with the numeric operations and
mathematical problem-solving in academic and life settings. According to Dowker, Sarkar and
Looi (2016), research has been carried out in mathematics anxiety for decades as a major source
of academic stress and one of the major key factors in low mathematics achievement. Hembree,
(1990) and Ma (1999) posited that students who have high anxiety related to mathematics
consistently demonstrated lower achievement in mathematics compared to their peers who have
low or no mathematics anxiety. Beilock and Carr (2005); Maloney and Beilock, (2012) believed
that due to excessive worries about the performance when facing mathematical problems, they
were not able to mobilize sufficient cognitive resources required to solve the task.

Highly mathematics-anxious individuals are characterized by a strong tendency to avoid

mathematics, which ultimately undercuts their mathematics competence and forecloses important
career paths. But timed, on-line tests reveal mathematics-anxiety effects on whole-number
arithmetic problems, whereas achievement tests show no competence differences (Ashcraft,
2001). Ashcraft states that routine arithmetic processes like retrieval of simple facts require little
in the way of working memory processing, and therefore show only minimal effects of
mathematics anxiety. But problems involving carrying, borrowing, and keeping track in a
sequence of operations (long division) do rely on working memory, and so should show
considerable mathematics anxiety effects. Higher-level mathematics like algebra probably relies
even more heavily on working memory, so it may show a far greater impact of mathematics
anxiety; note how difficult it will be, when investigating high-level mathematics topics, to
distinguish clearly between the effects of high mathematics anxiety.

Programme for International Students’ Assessment (PISA), provided evidence to support the
universality of the negative relation between mathematics anxiety and performance making an
international comparison of 15-year-old students' achievements in reading, mathematics, and
science. Out of mathematics performance out of 65 participating countries, 14% of the variation
explained mathematics anxiety students’ (OECD, 2013). Carey, Hill, Devine, and Szucs (2016)
submitted that this relation appeared to be the other way round or reciprocal, with low
performance in mathematics leading to enhanced mathematics anxiety, which in turn impaired
performance. Pekrun (2006) observes that mathematics anxiety reduces significantly interest and
intrinsic motivation for mathematics learning and promotes the use of learning strategies like a
simple rehearsal.

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Mathematics anxiety plays a significant role in students’ academic achievement in mathematics

this has promoted research interest into the determinants and development of this major
academic emotion. In anxiety, the gender issue is an important background variable in
experiencing mathematics anxiety (Dowker et al., 2016). In their recent study, PISA found that
females experienced a higher significance level of anxiety and other negative emotions
concerning mathematics compared to males in 52 of the 65 investigated countries, including
Croatia (OECD, 2013). However, some studies revealed no gender differences in mathematics
anxiety, such include, Hyde, Fennema, Ryan, Frost, and Hopp, (1990) and Ma, (1999). Such
contradictory results might be due to the differences in the way mathematics anxiety was
conceptualized. Studies employing adult populations have consistently revealed female having
higher mathematics anxiety than (Chang & Cho, 2013; Ferguson, Maloney, Fugelsang, & Risko,
2015; Miller & Bichsel, 2004). Awofala, Akinoso, and Fatade revealed gender difference in
attitude to computer and computer anxiety among preservice mathematics teachers. Woodard,
2004).

Mathematics performance gender differences are also of interest. Meta-analytic studies have
demonstrated a male advantage in mathematics among secondary-age students (Hedges &
Nowell, 1995; Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990). Nevertheless, this does vary across country
(Else-Quest, Hyde, & Linn, 2010) and recent data suggest this gender gap is disappearing (Hyde,
Lindberg, Linn, Ellis, & Williams, 2008; Hyde & Mertz, 2009; Lindberg, Hyde, Petersen, &
Linn, 2010). Further, Devine and colleagues showed no gender difference in arithmetic
performance, despite girls reporting higher MA than boys (Devine et al.2012). Thus, this study
also compared girls' and boys' arithmetic performance to elucidate whether or not there is a
gender-related mathematics attainment gap. According to OECD (2013), evidence has shown
that girls on average reported higher mathematics anxiety than boys on generalized assessments.
Goetz, Bieg, Lüdtke, Pekrun, and Hall (2013) observe that this difference diminished when
anxiety was measured in real-life settings such as mathematics examination in the classrooms.

Despite the complexity of this phenomenon, the variability in the definitions used to describe it,
and the wide range of symptoms reported by those who experience difficulty while doing
mathematics, there is no unique measure that reflects the consensus of current thought on this
construct that could be used to determine a single, generally agreed-upon estimate of the fraction
of the population that is experiencing mathematics anxiety. Regardless of the exact number of
affected students, the existing literature suggests that mathematics anxiety is prevalent on college
campuses (Khatoon & Mahmood, 2010; Perry, 2004).

According to Alamo’lhoda (2013) mathematics anxiety serves as a psychological status that

occurs when dealing with content in mathematics whether in teaching and learning or in solving
the mathematical problems and evaluating the people’s mathematical behavior. Many
researchers have investigated the causes of anxiety in mathematics, and various authors
identified a lot of factors. Shanklen (2002) identified eleven factors such as (1) Attitudes and
behavior of parents, (2) Previous experience toward mathematics teachers, (3) Unsuitability
feeling and poor self - concept, (4) Inability to control the failures, (5) Emphasis on the practice
without explanation, (6) Aggressive behavior of teachers, (7) Peers competition of test schedule,
(8) High-speed teaching and non- observance of individual differences when teaching

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mathematics, (9) The educational administration poor explanations, (10) Exaggeration in

memorization of mathematical topics, (11) Gender biased.

Notwithstanding, Punaro and Reeve (2012) also found that whilst the high maths-worry
subgroup only reported a mathematics task to be worrisome and not a language task, the high
language-worry subgroup reported both mathematics and language tasks to be worrisome. It may
be that these children were worried about mathematics and language simply because they were
generally anxious children, with a disposition towards many forms of anxiety. It was observed
that General Anxiety (GA) differs conceptually and in definition from MA in that it does not
relate to a specific situation or activity, but rather refers to an individual's general disposition to
worry about events, behaviors and personal abilities. However, evidence suggests that GA and
MA may not be entirely independent; GA is moderately correlated with MA (Hembree, 1990)
and, in a study exploring the genetic variance of MA, genetic and non-shared environmental
factors associated with GA were found to influence MA, implicating GA in MA etiology (Wang
et al., 2014).

The gender role and self-beliefs have been well-documented, there is a paucity of research on
dispositional factors playing a role in mathematics anxiety. Mathematics anxiety was influenced
by genetic differences in general anxiety as demonstrated by behavior genetic research (Wang et
al., 2014). General anxiety as explained by Costa and McCrae (1992) is a component of
neuroticism, a dimension of personality in the five-factor model. Neuroticism has been
demonstrated to play a role in the experience of anxiety in academic settings (Chamorro-
Premuzic, Ahmetoglu, & Furnham, 2008). However, research evidence relating mathematics
anxiety to other personality dimensions of the five-factor model is scant, although personality
has a significant role in academic achievement and effort invested in learning mathematics
(Poropat, 2009; 2014; Trautwein et al., 2009). The current study is unique in that it investigated
the relationship between Mathematics Anxiety among secondary school students and their
personality characteristics.

Objectives of the Study

This study investigated the relationship between mathematics anxiety and personality
characteristics among secondary school students. Other objectives include the following, too:

1. determine the relationship between students’ mathematics anxiety and personality

characteristics of secondary school students
2. explore mathematics anxiety and gender differences among secondary school students.
3. investigate whether the personality characteristics of secondary school students could
lead to mathematics anxiety.
4. examine mathematics anxiety and age differences among secondary school students and
5. assess personality characteristics and age of the students as related to the performance of
mathematics in secondary school.

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Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance

HO1: There is no significant relationship between mathematics anxiety and personality

characteristics of secondary school students

HO2: There is no significant relationship between mathematical anxiety and gender among
secondary school students

HO3: There is no significant relationship between students’ personality characteristics and

gender of secondary school students

HO4: There is no significant relationship between age and mathematics anxiety among secondary
school students.

HO5: There is no significant relationship between age and personality characteristics of

secondary school students.

Methodology

The design used in this research was a quantitative research method within the blueprint of the
descriptive survey design. This design examined analyzed and evaluated the characteristics of a
particular group or a certain phenomenon of interest as it exists without any form of
manipulation. The population of this study comprised all secondary schools II in the Lagos State
of Nigeria. The participants in this study were four hundred and forty-six (446) students selected
from ten senior secondary school II from one District in Lagos state precisely Education District
IV Sabo-Yaba which was randomly selected from the six-educational district in Lagos state. One
intact class of senior secondary school II was selected from each school.

Instruments

Two instruments were used to collect data in this study while test anxiety inventory was used as
a screening tool to select the participants.

Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI)

The Test Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1980) is a copyrighted instrument to measure the test
anxiety level of an individual. In the current study, it was used to screen the participants for test
anxiety. Spielberger developed TAI based on extensive and intensive research work
(Spielberger, & Vagg, 1995; Bembenutty, 2009). Spielberger (1980) argues that the level of test
anxiety of an individual is determined by the total score on TAI. Test Anxiety Inventory consists
of 20 items and each item has four options ranging from Rarely to Almost Always. The
respondent was asked to pick one of the four options which are scored, as follows: Optional
Responses Scores Rarely 1, Sometimes 2, Often 3, Almost Always 4 Spielberger et al (1978)
argue that the internal consistency of the Test Anxiety Inventory (α) was 0.86 and it is

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significantly correlated with other commonly used anxiety measures. Thus, TAI is a reliable and
valid instrument for assessing test anxiety. The four-point scale of the TAI was used to determine
the frequency of experiencing the specific symptoms of anxiety in test situations only rather than
the trait anxiety.

Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale

In this study, mathematics anxiety was measured by the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale –
Short Version1 (Suinn & Winston, 2003). This scale, also commonly referred to as MARS-Brief,
is a shorter, 30-item version of the original MARS developed by Richardson and Suinn in 1972.
MARSBrief (as any other MARS based instrument) measures math anxiety as defined by
Richardson and Suinn (1972). The target population includes adults, but this instrument has been
mostly used in assessing math anxiety in college students. The participant responses on MARS-
Brief can vary from 'not at all' (which is interpreted as a score of "1") to 'very much' (which is
interpreted as a score of "5"). The scores can, therefore, range from 30 to 150, with the supposed
interpretation that higher scores correspond to higher levels of math anxiety.

Multi-Dimensional Personality Inventory (MPI)

Multi-Dimensional Personality Inventory (MPI) developed by Busari (2013) was utilized to

measure the personality characteristics based on self-report responses to 168 items tapping the
appraisal and expression of personality characteristics in self and utilization of personality type
in solving academic problems. Participants responded by indicating their agreement to each of
the 168 items using a five-point rating scale ranging from 1 (Inaccurate), 2 (Moderately
accurate), 3 (Neither inaccurate nor accurate), 4 (Moderately accurate), 5 (Very accurate). The
instrument had an internal consistency alpha of .87. MPI consists of two sections with Section A
consisting of demographic information of respondents such as age, sex, marital status, religion,
type of family, parents' level of education among others. Section B has five subsections
consisting of items tapping variables such as Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional
Stability, Extroversion, and General Intelligence.

Validity and Reliability

The two instruments used for data collection which include, Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale
(MARS) and Multi-Dimensional Personality Inventory (MPI) were subjected to face validity by
two experts in measurement and evaluation for appropriateness for the study to scrutinize the
research instruments. To determine the reliability of the instruments, the instruments were
administered to thirty (30) students from two schools that were not part of the study. Cronbach
Alpha was used to determine the reliability coefficient of the instruments, the alpha values
obtained respectively were 0.88 and 0.79 which showed that the instruments were highly
reliable.

Method of Data Analysis

The collected data were analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation, t-test to analyze
the gender and anxiety of student in mathematics and gender with personality characteristics of

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secondary school students, finally, Analysis of Variance was used to measure mathematics
anxiety and age as well as personality characteristics and age of mathematics students at 0.05
level of significance.

Results

HO1: There is no significant relationship between mathematics anxiety and personality

characteristics of secondary school students

Table 1: Pearson Correlation Table of Mathematics Anxiety and Personality Characteristics of

Secondary School Students

MAX MPI
MAX Pearson Correlation 1 .965**
Sig. (2 tailed) .000
N 446 446
MPI Pearson Correlation .965** 1
Sig. (2 tailed) .000
N 446 446
**
Correlation was significant at 0.01 level (2 tailed)

Table 1 shows that there was a strong, positive correlation between mathematics anxiety and
personality characteristics of secondary school students, which was statistically significant (r =
.965, n = 446, p = .000). Hypothesis 1 was therefore rejected.

HO2: There is no significant relationship between mathematics anxiety and gender among
secondary school students

Table 2: Independent Samples t-test Analysis of Secondary School Students Mathematics

Anxiety, Personality Characteristics, and Gender

Gender N Mean Std. F T df Sig.

Dev.
MAX Male 213 76.587 25.182 .035 -.722 444 .471
Female 233 78.335 25.860 -.723 442 .470
MPI Male 213 76.925 25.005 .002 -.686 444 .493
Female 233 78.558 25.218 -.686 441 .493

The result from table 2 indicates that mathematics anxiety had no significant relationship with
gender, hypothesis 2 was hereby not rejected.

HO3: There is no significant relationship between personality characteristics and gender among
secondary school students

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From table 2 above, it was discovered that personality characteristics of secondary school
students had no significant relationship with gender; hypothesis 3 was therefore not rejected.

HO4: There is no significant relationship between mathematics anxiety and age of secondary
school students

Table 3: One- way Analysis of Variance of Secondary School Students Mathematics Anxiety,
Personality Characteristics, and Age
Age N SS df Mean sq F Sig
MAX 10-15 204 54580.57 2 27290.21 51.369 .000*
16-20 237 23548.9 443 531.262
21& above 5 289929.5 445
MPI 10-15 204 49982.93 2 24991.47 48.050
16-20 237 230408.1 443 520.109 .000*
21 above 5

From table 3, it was observed that there was a significant relationship between mathematics
anxiety and age of the students, hypothesis 4 was hereby rejected.

HO5: There is no significant relationship between personality characteristics and age among
secondary school students

Table 3 revealed that a significant relationship exists between personality characteristics and age
of the secondary school students, hypothesis 5 was therefore rejected. This implies that there was
a significant relationship between students’ personality characteristics and age

Discussion

According to the findings of this study, there was a strong, positive relationship between
mathematics anxiety and personality characteristics of secondary school students, which was
statistically significant (r = .965, n = 446, p = .000), this implies that personality characteristics
of students contribute to the level of students' anxiety. Also, there was no significant relationship
between mathematics anxiety and the gender of secondary school students. This implies that the
gender of the students does not determine the level of anxiety the students possess in
mathematics. In this study, the mean score of the female students (x̄ = 78.335) in mathematics
anxiety was higher than the mean score of the male counterparts (x̄=76.587), but the difference
was not significant. The study agrees with the findings of Kinrys & Wygant on anxiety disorders
in women, the study concluded that women have a substantially higher risk of developing
lifetime anxiety disorders compared with men. The result of this study negates the findings of
Awofala, Akinoso, and Fatade (2017) who found a significant influence of gender on pre-service
mathematics teachers' attitudes toward computer and computer anxiety. The result also negates
the past research findings which indicated a significant effect of gender on computer attitudes
(Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Markauskaite, 2006). This research also found no significant
relationship between personality characteristics and gender of secondary school students.

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 Journal of Positive Psychology and Counselling, Vol 6. 2020
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This current research found a significant relationship between mathematics anxiety and the age
of secondary school students. Then, it was found out that, personality characteristics of students
had a significant relationship with secondary school students' age. In this case, both mathematics
anxiety and personality characteristics were determined by the student's age. The implication of
this is that, as the age increase, there is a decrease in the level of student mathematics anxiety.
This can be explained that maturity in the age of students reduced the students' mathematics
anxiety. This finding is in agreement with the findings of Walker, Greenwood, Hart & Carta
(1994) but negates the findings of Josiah, Owolabi, and Etuk-iren (2014) who found no
significant difference in achievement across gender, age, and mathematics anxiety groupings
(low, medium, high).

Conclusion and Recommendations

In this study, it was established that there was a strong, positive relationship between
mathematics anxiety and personality characteristics of secondary school students, the gender of
students is not a determinant of both mathematics anxiety as well as the personality
characteristics of students of mathematics. It was concluded further that, the age of mathematics
students has a significant effect on student’s mathematics anxiety and personality characteristics
of secondary school students. The increase in the age of the students might bring about a
reduction in mathematics anxiety among secondary school students. The implication is that as
adolescents get matured, there is a possibility of a reduction in mathematics anxiety. Bases on
the findings of this study, it was therefore recommended that: the teaching of mathematics
should be carried out in an active manner to involve every student. This might be from concrete
to representation before abstract which is the use of symbols. The use of technology is another
aspect that can boost the interest of the students and hereby reduce the abstract nature of
mathematics so as to minimize the students’ anxiety. In this case, the teachers of mathematics
should incorporate this into their teaching.

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