A network psychometric analysis of maths anxiety factors in Italian psychology students
Fuente:
arXiv
Guardado en:
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2025
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | |
| Etiquetas: |
Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
|
| _version_ | 1866916640759742464 |
|---|---|
| author | Franchino, Emma Ciringione, Luciana Canal, Luisa Epifania, Ottavia Marina Lombardi, Luigi Lattanzi, Gianluca Stella, Massimo |
| author_facet | Franchino, Emma Ciringione, Luciana Canal, Luisa Epifania, Ottavia Marina Lombardi, Luigi Lattanzi, Gianluca Stella, Massimo |
| contents | Dealing with mathematics can induce significant anxiety, strongly affecting psychology students' academic performance and career prospects. This phenomenon is known as maths anxiety and several scales can measure it. Most scales were created in English and abbreviated versions were translated and validated among Italian populations (e.g. Abbreviated Maths Anxiety Scale). This study translated the 3-factor MAS-UK scale in Italian to produce a new tool, MAS-IT, validated specifically in a sample of Italian undergraduates enrolled in psychology or related BSc programmes. A sample of 324 Italian undergraduates completed the MAS-IT. The data were analysed using confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), testing the original MAS-UK 3-factor model. CFA results revealed that the original MAS-UK 3-factor model did not fit the Italian data. A subsequent Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) identified 4 distinct components/factors of maths anxiety detected by MAS-IT. The items relative to "Passive Observation maths anxiety" factor remained stable across the analyses, whereas "Evaluation maths anxiety" and "Everyday/Social maths anxiety" items showed a reduced or poor item stability. Quantitative findings indicated potential cultural or contextual differences in the expression of maths anxiety in today's psychology undergraduates, underlining the need for more appropriate tools to be used among psychology students. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_01568 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A network psychometric analysis of maths anxiety factors in Italian psychology students Franchino, Emma Ciringione, Luciana Canal, Luisa Epifania, Ottavia Marina Lombardi, Luigi Lattanzi, Gianluca Stella, Massimo Applications Computers and Society Dealing with mathematics can induce significant anxiety, strongly affecting psychology students' academic performance and career prospects. This phenomenon is known as maths anxiety and several scales can measure it. Most scales were created in English and abbreviated versions were translated and validated among Italian populations (e.g. Abbreviated Maths Anxiety Scale). This study translated the 3-factor MAS-UK scale in Italian to produce a new tool, MAS-IT, validated specifically in a sample of Italian undergraduates enrolled in psychology or related BSc programmes. A sample of 324 Italian undergraduates completed the MAS-IT. The data were analysed using confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), testing the original MAS-UK 3-factor model. CFA results revealed that the original MAS-UK 3-factor model did not fit the Italian data. A subsequent Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) identified 4 distinct components/factors of maths anxiety detected by MAS-IT. The items relative to "Passive Observation maths anxiety" factor remained stable across the analyses, whereas "Evaluation maths anxiety" and "Everyday/Social maths anxiety" items showed a reduced or poor item stability. Quantitative findings indicated potential cultural or contextual differences in the expression of maths anxiety in today's psychology undergraduates, underlining the need for more appropriate tools to be used among psychology students. |
| title | A network psychometric analysis of maths anxiety factors in Italian psychology students |
| topic | Applications Computers and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01568 |