Parents’ Mathematics Anxiety and Their Contribution to Mathematics Education

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the mathematics anxieties of primary and middle school parents and their contributions to the teaching of mathematics. The data of the research were collected using “Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Parents,” “Parents’ Contribution to the Mathematics Education Scale,” and “Parent Form,” developed by the researcher. This research was designed as a survey study, and obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 16. Some of the conclusions that are achieved in this investigation are as follows: mathematics anxiety of parents were found to be low whereas their participation in their children's mathematics education was high, there was no difference in the mathematics anxiety of the children in accordance with the grade level they were enrolled in, the participation of primary school parents in mathematics education was found to be higher than that of the middle school parents, there was no difference between mathematics anxiety of mothers and fathers, mothers participated in the mathematics education more than fathers did, mathematics anxiety of parents decreased as their graduation and mathematics knowledge increased, thus, their participation in mathematics education increased, there was a high and inverse relationship between mathematics anxiety and participation in mathematics education.