Degree Name

Master of Arts

Document Type

Thesis

Date Created

5-1-2023

Department

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Psychological Sciences, SPS Student Work

Abstract

The psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) are often reassessed not using the population for which it was developed. While the scale was initially created for US undergraduate students, research has focused on testing the reliability of the AMAS within other populations, often modifying and translating them for use with children or speakers of other languages. The “replication crisis” calls into question the reliability and reproducibility of findings from many disciplines, including the social sciences, so in order for researchers to have a high degree of confidence in their data and results, measurement tools must be periodically reexamined for evidence of reliability within the population for which the scale was constructed. The purpose of the present study was to examine current evidence of construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the AMAS in a diverse and representative sample of US undergraduate students. This study utilized archival data (N = 160) of the AMAS to examine the scale’s factor structure and evidence for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The results of this study found evidence of construct validity and support for the strong reliability of the AMAS to continue to assess levels of math anxiety among current US undergraduate students.

Keywords

math anxiety; confirmatory factor analysis; internal consistency reliability

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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