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The interplay between ego-resiliency, math anxiety and working memory in math achievement
Eleonora Doz1, Alessandro Cuder1, Sandra Pellizzoni1
1Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, via Weiss 21 (Building W), Trieste, 34128, Italy.
Psychological Research
|June 28, 2024
Summary
Ego-resiliency protects children's math performance by reducing math anxiety and supporting working memory. This personality trait is key for interventions targeting math learning difficulties.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Math anxiety negatively impacts math performance, potentially by impairing working memory in children.
- Ego-resiliency, a personality trait, is linked to better challenge management, math performance, and lower anxiety.
- Limited research exists on ego-resiliency's role in math learning and its relation to math anxiety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the combined influence of ego-resiliency, math anxiety, and working memory on primary school children's math performance.
- To examine the mediating roles of math anxiety and working memory in the relationship between ego-resiliency and math achievement.
- To analyze these relationships in arithmetic and word problem-solving tasks, controlling for general anxiety and age.
Main Methods:
- Serial multi-mediational analyses were conducted on data from 185 Italian primary school children (grades 3-5).
- The study examined ego-resiliency, math anxiety, working memory, and performance on arithmetic and word problem tasks.
- General anxiety and age were included as covariates in the analyses.
Main Results:
- Ego-resiliency positively influenced math achievement indirectly through math anxiety and via the combined pathway of math anxiety and working memory.
- Working memory partially mediated the link between math anxiety and math performance, confirming prior research.
- Consistent findings were observed across both arithmetic and word problem-solving tasks.
Conclusions:
- Ego-resiliency acts as a protective factor against the development of math anxiety in primary school children.
- Interventions aimed at mitigating negative emotions towards mathematics should consider incorporating strategies to enhance ego-resiliency.
- Strengthening ego-resiliency may be a valuable approach to improve math learning and performance by addressing anxiety and cognitive factors.
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