The relation between math anxiety and math self-concept to math performance varies across study math load

Arithmetic skills are important to navigate everyday tasks and to successfully engage in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Among the factors supporting these skills, lower math anxiety and better math self-concept show consistent associations with better performance. However, the effect size of these associations is heterogeneous, and the factors that contribute to this variability are still not fully understood. Most of the studies on adults were conducted among psychology students, who may not be representative of the whole population and do not consider the different importance that mathematics plays for individuals’ careers. Therefore, the present study investigated whether the relation of arithmetic performance to math anxiety and math self-concept varies between university programs with different levels of math load. 836 German university students were included in the present online study. They completed self-report questionnaires to assess math anxiety and math self-concept and a timed arithmetic task. We found that arithmetic performance is negatively associated with math anxiety and positively with math self-concept overall, but the size of this association is different across math loads of the individuals’ study programs. Specifically, these associations were almost twice as strong among students in university programs with low math load compared to students in programs with high math load. We conclude that the math load of the university program is a factor to take into account, as results from students of a particular subject (e.g. psychology) are not representative of the relationship of math anxiety and math self-concept with math performance and should not be overgeneralized. Specifically, those individuals whose negative attitudes do not translate to lower performance are the ones likely to be enrolled in math intense programs.