Psychometric properties of the bidimensional Mathematics Anxiety Scale-Revised (MAS-R) on girl students

Achievement of mathematics in every society can help the development of other scientific disciplines and industries. Therefore، diagnosis and identification of students with math anxiety by appropriate instruments provides a timely opportunity for intervention. The present study aims to investigate psychometric properties of the bidimensional Mathematics Anxiety Scale-Revised (MAS-R) on girl students In this descriptive cross-sectional study، due to the nature of research، the Morgan table was undertaken on 510 girl students from Kermanshah state in 2013. Samples selection was based on a multistage cluster sampling. Participants completed Bai’s bidimensional mathematics anxiety scale and Schwarzer and Jerusalem’s self-efficacy scale to determine concurrent validity، correlation between self-efficacy and academic achievement scores with mathematics anxiety to assess the construct validity، confirmatory factor analysis method. Moreover، for this purpose LISREL (version-5) software was used. In order to achieve reliability of Mathematics Anxiety Scale، using (SPSS-18) statistical software، Cronbach''s alpha and split-half Spearman-Brown were performed on this data. Concurrent validity between mathematics anxiety scale with academic achievement and self-efficacy was negative and significant (p<0. 001). Using confirmatory factor analysis، the two-factor structure was confirmed and Cronbach''s alpha and split-half Spearman-Brown were respectively 0. 72 and 0. 65. Furthermore، it was obtained a significant negative correlation between math anxiety and general self-efficacy and academic achievement. In general، results of this study indicate that according to English edition، Bai’s bi-dimensional mathematics anxiety scale is formed both positive and negative attitudes to mathematics. Thus، in our country research on this scale in addition to assessing mathematics anxiety can be used to measure students’ attitude to mathematics.