Psychometric Properties of the Revised Child Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (CMAQ-R) for Spanish Speaking Children

• Main Authors: Bárbara Guzmán, Cristina Rodríguez, Roberto A. Ferreira, Juan A. Hernández-Cabrera
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2021-05-01
• Series: Psicología Educativa: Revista de los Psicólogos de la Educación
• Subjects: math anxiety; mathematics; spanish-speaking children; rating scale; emotion
• Online Access: https://journals.copmadrid.org/psed/art/psed2020a17

Mathematics anxiety (MA) has primarily been studied in adults and children over 8 years of age in English-speaking countries. Few studies have examined MA in younger children and in Spanish-speaking contexts due to the lack of suitable instruments. In the present study we examine the psychometric properties of the Child Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (CMAQ-R), an instrument widely used in English-speaking primary school children. A total of 810 Chilean second-grade students (50% boys) from different school types (26% public, 11% private, 63% private-subsidised) completed a Spanish version of CMAQ-R. The results showed adequate internal consistency in line with the original instrument. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that scores from the CMAQ-R version best fit a two correlated-factor structure, which was invariant across gender and school type. This study offers evidence regarding the usefulness of the CMAQ-R in contexts culturally different to the original and supports the multidimensionality of MA.