Translating the children’s anxiety in math scale to Turkish for use with Turkish children

Abstract

Math anxiety has become problematic for Turkish students and is thought to be a major cause of low math performance on national and international exams. As Turkey attempts to gain entry to the European Union, it is imperative that the Turkish educational system make efforts to decrease students’ math anxiety. Turkish researchers lack an appropriate scale to assess math anxiety in their students, however, particularly in their primary grade students. This study attempts to remedy that by translating the Children’s Anxiety in Math Scale to Turkish and assessing its psychometric properties. After translation, data were collected from 1587 children in grades 1-5 in Turkey; results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed both a three-factor and a one-factor solution. Confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the one-factor solution fits the data best. Suggestions for future research and applications are included.