Gender stereotypes about math anxiety: Ability and emotional components

Abstract

Gender stereotypes are believed to play a role in the heightened math anxiety (MA) reported by female students. We investigated, first, whether adolescents hold the stereotyped beliefs that girls experience more MA than boys (emotional facet), and that boys perform better in math (ability facet); second, whether gender differences in MA are due to self-report bias; and, third, whether gender differences in MA are related to gender-stereotyped beliefs, in terms of both ability and emotional facets. A total of 257 secondary school students completed math-related and gender stereotype measures. The results revealed that female students were perceived as being more prone to MA than male students, but no self-report bias was observed. Regarding the math ability facet, students endorsed either egalitarian or female-favoring views. Finally, gender differences in MA, as well as other math-related performance measures, were related to gender stereotypes about math ability, but not about emotion.