Western researchers zero in on math anxiety

If long division or finding the lowest common denominator makes your kids' palms sweat, it may be a case math anxiety. And scientists are finding it's a condition many students around the world are experiencing. Psychologists at Western University studied data from more than one million students across the globe and found not only is math anxiety a real phenomenon but as a result, performance is also greatly affected. Student perception of teacher competence and parental homework involvement are both revealed as important predictors of math anxiety in the new global study, led by Western postdoctoral researcher Nathan Tsz Tan Lau, which was published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) . "Our study shows math anxiety is very much a human condition, which is experienced by students all around the world," said Lau. "Math anxiety is clearly related to math achievement, and in virtually all countries that we've examined, those children with higher math anxiety are also children who have lower math achievement." For decades, the correlation between math anxiety and math achievement has been examined by psychologists and educators. This new study shows math anxiety experienced by a student's classmates could also influence individual math achievement.