Measurement of Calculation Anxiety: Examining Domain-Specificity

ABSTRACT

The study used a cross-sectional online methodology with a convenience sample of 160 undergraduates from a university in the Midlands of the United Kingdom. The results of the exploratory factor analysis pointed to a simple four-component explanation: fears related to abstract math, statistics probability, statistics calculation, and numerical computation. The findings corroborate the idea of "numerical anxiety" or "arithmetic computation" anxiety as a distinct subtype of maths anxiety, and they also lend credence to the idea of "abstract mathematics anxiety." This research is the first to examine the dimensionality of mathematics fear at the level of specific calculations. Specifically for the purpose of gauging levels of worry related to mathematical computation, the 26-item Maths Calculation Anxiety Scale seems to be an effective instrument.

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