Gender Difference of Chinese High School Students’ Math Anxiety: The Effects of Self-Esteem, Test Anxiety and General Anxiety

The present study aimed to explore gender differences in, and the effects of, self-esteem on math anxiety. A total of 751 (450 young women) junior and senior high school students (12–18 years-old) from China were recruited and requested to report their math anxiety, self-esteem, control beliefs, test anxiety, and general anxiety. Results revealed that young women showed a higher level of math anxiety compared with young men; no gender difference was found in math performance. Further, the pathway from self-esteem to math anxiety was different for young men and young women. For young men, apart from a direct effect on math anxiety, self-esteem had an indirect effect on math anxiety as mediated by control beliefs, test anxiety, and general anxiety. For young women, self-esteem only had an indirect effect on math anxiety as mediated by test anxiety and general anxiety. Our results indicated that improving self-esteem, test anxiety and general anxiety would be helpful for students’ math anxiety.