Math anxiety increases with the difficulty of a math task – The state-trait differentiation for math anxiety

Math anxiety differs between individuals, with some being more anxious about math than others. Anxiety research distinguishes between a trait component – how anxious an individual typically feels (differences between individuals) – and a state component – how anxious an individual feels in a specific moment (differences between situations). This raises the question whether math anxiety has a state component as well. However, research on state math anxiety is scarce. Here, we set out to develop an instrument to assess state math anxiety in adults and to characterize the relation between state and trait math anxiety to math performance. The resulting state math anxiety scale (SMA) is a reliable and valid instrument. Importantly, state math anxiety depended on the math situation: State math anxiety was higher when solving difficult as compared to simple arithmetic problems. The pilot study suggested that this difficulty-related increase in state math anxiety was more pronounced for individuals with higher trait math anxiety. However, after controlling various traits in the main study, test anxiety was the decisive trait. Although anxiety and performance both depend on task difficulty, the difficulty-related differences were not related and predicted by different traits. Namely, the difficulty-related drop in math performance was larger for individuals with lower math self-concept. In conclusion, the differentiation between state and trait math anxiety is essential and closely interacts with emotional (test anxiety) and cognitive factors (math self-concept). In addition to trait measures, we recommend using state measures like the SMA to capture situational changes in math anxiety.