Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

Caterina Primi; Chiara Busdraghi; Carlo Tomasetto; Kinga Morsanyi; Francesca Chiesi

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.05.012

Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

Caterina Primi, Chiara Busdraghi, Carlo Tomasetto, Kinga Morsanyi, Francesca Chiesi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

64 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Given that the ability to manage numbers is essential in a modern society, mathematics anxiety – which has been demonstrated to have unfortunate consequences in terms of mastery of math – has become a subject of increasing interest, and the need to accurately measure it has arisen. One of the widely employed scales to measure math anxiety is the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare & Hunt, 2003). The first aim of the present paper was to confirm the factor structure of the AMAS when administered to Italian high school and college students, and to test the invariance of the scale across educational levels. Additionally, we assessed the reliability and validity of the Italian version of the scale. Finally, we tested the invariance of the AMAS across genders. The overall findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the AMAS when administered to Italian students.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	51-56
Number of pages	6
Journal	Learning and Individual Differences
Volume	34
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.05.012
Publication status	Published - Aug 2014

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T1 - Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

AU - Primi, Caterina

AU - Busdraghi, Chiara

AU - Tomasetto, Carlo

AU - Morsanyi, Kinga

AU - Chiesi, Francesca

PY - 2014/8

Y1 - 2014/8

N2 - Given that the ability to manage numbers is essential in a modern society, mathematics anxiety – which has been demonstrated to have unfortunate consequences in terms of mastery of math – has become a subject of increasing interest, and the need to accurately measure it has arisen. One of the widely employed scales to measure math anxiety is the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare & Hunt, 2003). The first aim of the present paper was to confirm the factor structure of the AMAS when administered to Italian high school and college students, and to test the invariance of the scale across educational levels. Additionally, we assessed the reliability and validity of the Italian version of the scale. Finally, we tested the invariance of the AMAS across genders. The overall findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the AMAS when administered to Italian students.

AB - Given that the ability to manage numbers is essential in a modern society, mathematics anxiety – which has been demonstrated to have unfortunate consequences in terms of mastery of math – has become a subject of increasing interest, and the need to accurately measure it has arisen. One of the widely employed scales to measure math anxiety is the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare & Hunt, 2003). The first aim of the present paper was to confirm the factor structure of the AMAS when administered to Italian high school and college students, and to test the invariance of the scale across educational levels. Additionally, we assessed the reliability and validity of the Italian version of the scale. Finally, we tested the invariance of the AMAS across genders. The overall findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the AMAS when administered to Italian students.

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DO - 10.1016/j.lindif.2014.05.012

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JO - Learning and Individual Differences

JF - Learning and Individual Differences

ER -

Measuring math anxiety in Italian college and high school students: Validity, reliability and gender invariance of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS)

Abstract

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