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Social cognitive theory suggests students with low mathematics self-concept and low mathematics self-efficacy often display high mathematics anxiety. A better understanding of the antecedents of mathematics anxiety could lead to more effective interventions. However, findings from empirical research examining mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy as related to mathematics anxiety are inconsistent, perhaps due to overlapping definitions and operationalization. We investigated the relations of mathematics anxiety, self-concept, and self-efficacy using multidimensional scaling. Attention was given to the relationships across varying levels of specificity of self-efficacy (e.g., course, task, and problem). Participants were undergraduate students in an introductory quantitative reasoning course (N = 457). We found that mathematics self-efficacy occupied a distinct space, but there is considerable overlap in the areas of mathematics anxiety and self-concept. This study contributes to the literature on how these constructs are defined operationally and provides guidance on the use of measures for future studies on the antecedents of mathematics anxiety.

Mathematics educators often know the widespread nature of mathematics anxiety and may even be aware of the debilitating effect it can have on their students. Although educators may develop tricks or tools that seem to help, a comprehensive understanding of what students are experiencing and how the classroom environment can be adjusted to address their struggles is missing. Control-value theory offers a theoretical framework for how the classroom environment and students' appraisals influence mathematics anxiety. Mathematics anxious students are focused on not failing, rather than on mastering the material, and have a low sense of control over outcomes. To decrease mathematics anxiety, teachers can implement strategies that increase emphasis on learning over performance and support autonomy, thus decreasing fear of failure and avoidant goal orientations, and increasing self-efficacy and control appraisals. Suggested strategies for adjusting instruction focus on high school and college classrooms.

Mathematics anxiety negatively impacts cognitive processing, performance, expectations, motivation, and future choices. However, research has not examined patterns in students' mathematics anxiety levels over time. The current study addresses this gap by exploring group-based trajectories in mathematics anxiety during the transition to junior high school. Five trajectories are described: consistently low anxiety, consistently high anxiety, steady decline, summer decrease, and summer increase. Predictors of trajectory membership, including student demographics and motivational variables like self-concept, are explored. Trajectory membership predicts longitudinal differences in expectations and values after high school. Implications for research on students' mathematics anxiety over time and especially during transition are discussed.