The effects of math anxiety on post-secondary developmental students as related to achievement, gender, and age

The purpose of this study was to determine if differences in math anxiety scores are related to gender or age, and if there is a relationship between math anxiety scores and achievement scores. A total of 125 developmental math students at Southwest Virginia Community College participated in the study.;The Mathematical Anxiety Rating Scale was used to measure the math anxiety of the students. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation procedure was run on the math anxiety scores and exit exam scores of the students to determine if a relationship existed between them. Independent t-tests were used to test for any differences in the anxiety levels of males and females, and the anxiety levels of traditional aged (below 25) and nontraditional aged (25 and over) students.;Results indicated that a significantly low negative relationship (-.2013) exists between math anxiety and achievement and that female math students are significantly more math anxious than male math students. No significant difference in the math anxiety of traditional aged and nontraditional (older) students was indicated in the study.