Whether or not a child expresses insecure attachment to their mother can predict the degree to which they experience math anxiety and achievement in mathematics, according to the findings of Guy Bosmans and Bert De Smedt in their study published in the October 2015 issue of Frontiers in Psychology.

The researchers, from the University of Leuven in Belgium, provided preliminary evidence that the relationship between a child’s insecure attachment and mathematics achievement that has been observed in the literature (e.g. Keller et al., 2008) might be mediated by math anxiety.

“The aim of our work was to further unravel the origins of math anxiety, i.e. feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations” said Bosmans and De Smedt. “We know from many studies that this anxiety has a negative impact on performance: individuals who are more math anxious perform more poorly on mathematical tasks (even on very simple ones such as single-digit calculation).”

The implications of math anxiety are far reaching. For example, math anxiety and poor mathematical achievement can significantly impact both career choices and professional achievement (e.g. Ma, 1999). Others have shown that anxiety and negative attitudes towards mathematics are difficult to change (Gierl and Bisanz, 1994).

“What makes some individuals more vulnerable to developing this anxiety than others?” Bosmans and De Smedt explain, “… we explored whether this anxiety emerges from maladaptive affect regulation that typically occurs in the context of insecure attachment relationships. More specifically, insecure attachment will change the child’s ability to cope with stress.”

The study was administered to a randomly selected group of 87 Flemish primary school fifth grade students. Previous studies have shown that math anxiety manifests at around this age (e.g., Ma, 1999; Witt, 2012; Dowker, 2012) and thus evaluating children in this age group was thought likely to provide insight into risk factors associated with long-term anxiety.

Attachment anxiety and avoidance in relationships were assessed in relation to the child’s mother. An adapted version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale–Revised measuring attachment anxiety (ECR–R; Fraley et al, 2000; ECR-RC by Brenning et al., 2011b) measured anxiety-related feelings such as the fear of abandonment (e.g. “I worry about being abandoned by my mother”). Attachment avoidance was assessed through additional items relating to, for example, the child’s discomfort with closeness, dependence, and level of intimate self-disclosure (e.g. “I prefer not to show to my mother how I feel deep down”).

A version of the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale for Adolescents (MARS-A; Suinn and Edwards, 1982) was adapted to use with primary school children and questioned children about mathematical situations with which they are often confronted with (e.g., “How nervous are you when you are called during math class”).

The study used two standardized mathematics tests, one timed and one untimed test, to measure mathematical achievement. The timed test, the Tempo Test Arithmetic (de Vos, 1992) asks children to solve as many basic arithmetic combinations (e.g. 6 + 5) of increasing difficulty as they can within a given time period. An untimed curriculum-based standardized achievement test evaluating skills such as number knowledge, calculation, word problem solving, measurement and geometry was also included (Dudal, 2000).

Each child also completed a measure of intelligence (Raven’s Progressive Matrices; Raven et al., 1992) to determine whether any observed relationships between insecure attachment, math anxiety and mathematics achievement might be mediated by level of general intellect.

“In this research, we show insecure attachment leads to higher levels of math anxiety, which in turn leads to poorer mathematical performance.” This was the case for both untimed and timed measures of mathematics achievement, and these associations were independent of age, sex and IQ.

Based on the results of their study, the authors suggest that math anxiety might be addressed through interventions relating to the child’s attachment security. The authors comment “teacher-child relations can buffer against the negative effects of insecure attachment and, consequently, math anxiety. Specifically, improving teachers’ skills to sensitively respond to these problems might reduce math anxiety and improve math performance, at least in the context of insecurely attached children.” Indeed, such an approach has received some support in similar research by Buyse et al. (2011). They reported that negative effects (e.g. aggressive behavior) resulting from children’s insecure attachment with their mothers can be tempered by a higher quality relationship between the child and their teacher.

Future research might also target more specific mechanisms which underlie the relationship between attachment security, math anxiety and math achievement. Bosmans and De Smedt remark, “[one] idea is to investigate how math anxiety impacts on performance: does higher math anxiety lead to reduced cognitive resources (because negative feelings enter working memory) or to avoidance of mathematical tasks (leading to less experience in math).”