Mathematics Anxiety and Academic Motivation among Adolescents: A Gender-Based Study

Abstract: Mathematics anxiety is a major psychological barrier that affects students' performance in Mathematics and has negative educational outcomes. Academic motivation refers to the mental processes that push goal-focused behavior in school settings. The present study examines the level of mathematics anxiety and academic motivation among adolescents and evaluates the association of mathematics anxiety and various subscales of academic motivation with an emphasis on gender. For this study descriptive survey research method was employed. 300 students selected for the study through purposive sampling technique as sample. Mathematics Anxiety Scale and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire were used to collect the required data. Collected data were analyzed through appropriate statistics. Mann-Whitney u tests confirm significant gender contrast in test anxiety scores, with no significant differences in other subscales, such as self-efficacy, cognitive strategy use, intrinsic value and self-regulation. Furthermore, spearman rank correlation shows significant negative correlations between mathematics anxiety and most of the academic motivation subscales, suggesting that as mathematics anxiety increases, academic motivation subscales decrease (r = -0.42, p

Keywords: Mathematics Anxiety, Academic Motivation, Gender difference and Adolescents