Do girls feel more math anxiety than they report in class?
Girls said they were generally more anxious about maths than boys, but not during actual lessons, and the gap between general and in-the-moment anxiety was bigger for girls who believed maths is a male domain.
Source
Gender stereotype endorsement differentially predicts girls' and boys' trait-state discrepancy in math anxiety
Study at a glance
- Design
- Other — Observational diary (experience-sampling) study: one trait questionnaire, then brief state-anxiety ratings after each maths lesson for 2-3 weeks, analysed with three-level multilevel models
- N
- N=755 · 755 students from 42 classes, contributing 6207 lesson diary entries
- Population
- Grade 9 and 10 students in the academic (Gymnasium) track in Germany
- Outcome
- Trait-state discrepancy in math anxiety, predicted by math self-concept and endorsement of the stereotype that maths is a male domain
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What they did
Students first completed a questionnaire on their general (trait) maths anxiety, maths self-concept and agreement with the statement that maths is a male domain. Over the next 2-3 weeks, they rated how anxious they felt right after each maths lesson (state anxiety), using items worded in parallel. Multilevel models tested whether self-concept and stereotype endorsement predicted how much trait anxiety exceeded state anxiety, separately for girls and boys.
What they found
Girls reported slightly higher trait anxiety than boys (a small effect, d = -0.12), but there was no gender difference in state anxiety during lessons. Girls showed a significant gap between trait and state anxiety while boys did not. Higher self-concept shrank this gap for both genders; stronger stereotype endorsement widened it for girls, and tended to shrink it for boys, and for girls it still mattered after accounting for self-concept.
The limits
What it doesn't show
The study is correlational, so it cannot show that stereotype beliefs cause girls to overestimate their anxiety; the authors note self-concept and stereotypes may influence each other in either direction. Stereotype endorsement was measured with one blunt item, and both anxiety measures are self-reports rather than physiological or behavioural data. The sample was only high-track German 9th and 10th graders, and the trait gender difference was small.
Key terms
- Trait anxiety
- How anxious someone says they generally feel in a type of situation, reported from memory.
- State anxiety
- How anxious someone feels at a particular moment, reported right after the situation.
- Trait-state discrepancy
- The difference between general self-reported anxiety and the anxiety actually reported in real situations.
- Accessibility model of emotional self-report
- The idea that general emotion reports rely on beliefs stored in memory, so they are more biased by stereotypes than momentary reports.
- Academic self-concept
- A student's perception of their own ability in a subject.
- Multilevel model
- A statistical model that handles data nested in levels, such as lessons within students within classes.
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Quiz yourself
What is 'state' math anxiety in this study?
Common questions
Are girls actually more anxious in maths lessons than boys?
Not in this sample. The gender difference appeared only in general questionnaire reports, not in ratings taken right after lessons.
Why does it matter if trait reports are inflated?
Believing you are anxious about maths can shape choices like course and career selection, even if your in-class experience is not so anxious.
What could schools do with this?
Challenge the maths-is-male stereotype and build all students' maths self-concept, which was linked to a smaller gap for both girls and boys.
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