Study aiming to identify factors with the potential to reduce the gaps in math anxiety observed between 15-year-old francophone boys and girls in Quebec, based on an analysis of PISA data from 2003 and 2012

Abstract

In a previous study (Vohl & Loye, 2024), we showed that, on average, 15-year-old French-speaking Quebec girls are more anxious about mathematics than French-speaking Quebec boys across the performance continuum. We also showed that performances in mathematics and mathematical anxiety are two negatively correlated phenomena. In this article, we wish to identify factors that could explain the differences in mathematical anxiety observed between girls and boys and that would have the potential, eventually, to reduce the observed differences. Based on the Pekrun (2006) Model of Control and Value for Academic Emotions, we verify whether differences in self- concept, intrinsic value and utilitary value observed between girls and boys completely explain the differences in mathematical anxiety. Our results show that differences in self-concept explain nearly 70% of the differences in mathematical anxiety observed among francophone students in Quebec.