The relationship between math anxiety and educational motivation: the mediating role of school belongingness

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship between math anxiety and academic motivation and the mediating role of school belongingness. For data collection, 447 students (boys = 247) were selected using convenience sampling and administered the School Belonging, Educational Motivation, and Mathematics Anxiety Scale. The results showed that school belongingness is negatively correlated with academic motivation; moreover, after controlling gender and age, math anxiety and school belonging predicted academic motivation. In addition, this study found that male students had lower levels of math anxiety than female students, while there were no differences in learning motivation and sense of school belonging between male and female students. The results also showed that age is negatively correlated with academic motivation. However, there was no significant correlation between age and gender and other variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Math anxiety
• school belonging
• educational motivation
• students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Faramarz Asanjarani

Faramarz Asanjarani is an assistant professor of school counseling at the Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Iran. His research interests include attachment, motivation at a school setting, school belonging, cross-cultural psychology, bullying, and cyber-bullying. He is also interested in the cultural validity of evidence-based interventions to promote students’ wellbeing in school settings.