Math Achievement as a Function of Math Anxiety and Perceived Teachers’ Social Support among Elementary Students

This study intended to explore effects of students’ anxiety that they experience towards math and perceived teachers’ social support on their achievement towards math. Participants were 345 elementary school students (157 female and 188 male students) aged 12-14 years. Participants were approached through convenient sampling technique at their schools in Vehari city. Math anxiety and perception about instructor’s support were measured through Math Anxiety Questionnaire (Wigfield & Meece, 1988) and Teacher Social Support Scale (Malecki, Demaray, & Elliot, 2000) respectively. Students’ performance score in mathematics in their annual examination was used as math achievement. Employing Pearson Correlation and Regression Analysis, results revealed that math achievement was found with inverse relationship with math anxiety while was found positively correlated with teachers’ support. Findings further indicated that students’ anxiety towards math and perception of teacher’s social support were found significant determinants of achievements in math. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that teachers should provide support, autonomy, and empowerment to their students because the students’ perception about their teachers always affect their performance in the course to be learnt.