Associations Between Teacher and Student Mathematics, Science, and Literacy Anxiety in Fourth Grade

• In Event: Identifying, Understanding, and Addressing Elementary Students' Negative STEM Emotions and Beliefs

Abstract

Objectives
Students’ academic anxiety impacts learning (Daker et al., 2021), thus it is crucial to identify factors that influence students’ academic anxiety. Teachers are a significant school-based factor contributing to student outcomes (Nye et al., 2004), and recent investigations provide evidence of the direct transmission of emotions including anxiety among teachers and students (Frenzel et al., 2021). However, despite evidence that teachers’ and students’ emotions are content-area specific (Wilkins, 200X) and impact student groups differently (Schaeffer et al., 2021) little work has been done describing how this emotional transference differs across content areas and among student groups. We explored associations among teachers’ and students’ mathematics, science, and English language arts (ELA) anxiety, and how these varied depending on student sex and SES. We anticipated that teachers’ anxiety would be negatively associated with students’ anxiety in mathematics and science, and that these effects would be most profound for girls and low-SES students.

Methods
Two cohorts of fourth grade teachers and students from 14 schools participated. Cohort 1 (15 teachers, 199 students) underwent data collection in 2018/2019 and Cohort 2 (18 teachers, 264 students) in 2019/2020. Among the 33 teachers, 88% were female, 67% were Caucasian, 24% Latino/a, and 9% other races. Among the 463 students, 53% were female, 44% were Latino/a, 19% Caucasian, 12% multiracial, and 25% other races. 56% of students were enrolled in a Free and Reduced Meal program (i.e. low SES). Teachers and guardians reported demographics upon enrollment. Teachers reported their content-area anxiety in the fall (T1) and winter (T2) using the Teacher Emotions Scale (Frenzel et al., 2016) adapted across math, science, and ELA. Students reported their content-area anxiety at T1 and T2 using the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (Pekrun et al., 201) adapted across math, science, and literacy. Multiple regression models using cluster-robust standard errors were run separately for each content area. Main effects models regressed teachers’ T1 anxiety in each content area on students’ Time 2 anxiety in that content area, controlling for students’ T1 anxiety and other relevant covariates. Interaction models included teacher anxiety-by-student sex and SES interaction terms as predictors of students’ Time 2 anxiety.

Results
Interaction models revealed a significant teacher mathematics-anxiety-by-student FARM interaction effect (B = .39, p <.01; see Figure 1) and a significant teacher science anxiety-by-student FARM interaction effect (B = .21, p = .05; see Figure 2). These indicated that in classrooms led by teachers with high (+1 SD) mathematics and science anxiety, low-SES students’ mathematics and science anxiety were higher than their peers.

Significance
Findings suggest transference of anxiety among teachers and students may surface most pointedly in STEM and may have particular implications for low-SES students. It may be that low-SES children experience limited home and community supports in developing positive STEM emotions, and may rely more on their teacher to form their feelings about these content areas. It could also be that teachers’ STEM anxiety becomes heightened when teaching low-SES students. Teacher preparation and professional learning programs could prioritize supporting teachers’ STEM efficacy and positive emotions.

Authors

• Leigh McLean, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Jayley Ann Janssen, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paul Espinoza, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Manuela Jimenez, Glendale Community College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Renee Lindstrom Johnson, Johns Hopkins University
  Non-Presenting Author