Abstract
We investigated the influence of the school context on the prevalence of Mathematical Anxiety (MA) and on the mathematical performance of school children, considering different educational contexts (rural, urban, and suburban) and the gender of the participants (female, male). We applied the self-reported scale of mathematical anxiety - Anxiety Rating Scale for Elementary Children- MARS-E- translated and adapted into Portuguese in nine Brazilian public schools, totaling 312 students from the 5th and 6th year of elementary school, aged between 9 and 12 years. The mathematical performance was obtained from the average of the bimonthly evaluations of the participants provided by each school. The results indicate that MA is related to the school context when associated with gender. For urban/suburban school contexts, girls in the suburban group had higher MA when compared to girls in the urban group. For rural/suburban contexts, boys who study in the rural area had higher MA compared to their peers in the suburban group. No results were found associated with rural/urban contexts. Thus, our findings suggest that depending on the school context, MA seems to impact gender differently. Similarly, mathematical performance is also a critical factor when looking at specific school contexts, with the rural context being the most representative of the low mathematical performance of the participants. Our results contribute to the study of social and environmental influences of Mathematical Anxiety, indicating that the school context influences both the prevalence of Mathematical Anxiety and mathematical performance when considering gender.
Mathematical anxiety; Academic achievement; Mathematical education; School context; Gender