Epigenetic analysis of mathematics anxiety

This study aims to examine mathematical anxiety from an epigenetic transmission perspective, investigating the transmission of mathematical anxiety across three generations (grandmother, mother, and granddaughter) from a transgenerational perspective. This qualitative study employs a case study design. The study group consists of two middle school students with low mathematical achievement and mathematical anxiety, selected using a matched sampling method, along with their families. Low mathematics test scores were used as the criterion for determining students' mathematics achievement, the Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MAS) was used to determine their level of mathematics anxiety, and the Parent Mathematics Anxiety Scale (PMAS) was used to determine their parents' level of mathematics anxiety. A semi-structured interview developed by the researcher was used as the data collection tool. The data obtained were analysed using content analysis. The results of the data revealed that the "perception of inadequacy in mathematics", "difficulty in performing mathematical calculations in daily life", and "mathematics anxiety during school years" observed in the first generation (grandmothers) of the two families were also present in other generations. In addition, it was noted that although both grandmothers, as the first generation, did not experience any pressure at home in their own families, both experienced math anxiety in middle school due to their teachers, and that this anxiety was present in the younger generations of both families when studying math at home. It was also found that the three generations of families resembled each other in terms of math anxiety and that physical reactions (e.g., trembling) in states of anxiety were similar within their own families. The findings of the study show that the traumatic math anxiety that developed in the grandmother in the first generation was passed on to her daughter (second generation) and then to her own daughter (granddaughter) in the third generation, and this phenomenon is considered an indication of epigenetic transmission.