The prediction of high school students' maths anxiety

In this study, it is aimed to predict the maths anxiety of high school students. With this purpose, it is targeted to determine to what extent academic motivation, social support perception, gender, the relationship with the maths teacher and maths achievement predict maths anxiety directly and indirectly. The sample of this study consisted of 511 students, 275 females and 236 males, who were selected by purposeful sampling from three Anatolian High School in Kırşehir in the academic year of 2014-2015. Data was gathered by using Maths Anxiety Rating Scale developed by Baloğlu (2010), Scale of Perceived Social Support' revision developed by Yıldırım (2004), Academic Motivation Scale developed by Bozanoğlu (2004) and personal information form prepared by the researcher. The students' 2014-2015 first term Maths grades were collected from e-school system via school administration. Path analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings of this study indicated that maths achievement and gender predicted maths anxiety whereas the relationship with the teacher, perceived social support and academic motivation did not predict maths anxiety. According to the findings of the study, perceived social support predicted the relationship with the maths teacher and academic motivation. Moreover, the relationship with the maths teacher predicted Maths achievement significantly. It was also found that the relationship with the maths teacher predicted maths anxiety with the mediation effect of maths achievement.