Now, almost all human beings on Earth will learn mathematics or to simply put it how to count. A lot of people will flunk out of math class and if we look closer a lot of these are mainly girls rather than boys.
A new English study has found that girls suffer from mathematics anxiety more than boys, confirming some previous research. The analysis also found that high math anxiety was a stronger predictor of poor test performance for girls than boys.
Even though girls have a higher tendency of flunking math class but the fact is that girls that performed in math will have a higher and better grades than most boys. This kinda balance out the whole thing.
To better understand the implications of math anxiety, the researchers looked at tests and questionnaires from 4,333 English secondary school children (in their early to midteens). Some have considered math anxiety a part of another misery familiar to students: test anxiety. In this study, the researchers assessed test anxiety and controlled for it to see if it factored into the results.
They found that test anxiety was also linked to poor mathematics performance, but this link was stronger for girls than boys.
While many, but not all, previous studies indicate girls suffer from higher mathematics anxiety than boys, it is not clear why.
Researchers have offered many speculative reasons for this difference: that it arises from sex roles that assign math to the male domain; that girls may be more willing to admit feelings of anxiety or may be more critical of themselves than boys; that boys have greater self confidence; and that past experience with mathematics is responsible, the researchers write.
Reference : http://www.livescience.com/21470-math-more-likely-to-make-girls-anxious.html
