Attributional Style in Mathematics across Anxiety Profiles in Spanish Children

Abstract

This research aimed to examine the relation between child anxiety and causal attributions in mathematics using a person-centered approach. The Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety-Revised and the Sydney Attribution Scale were administered to 1287 Spanish students aged 8 to 11 (M = 9.68, SD = 1.20); 49.4% were girls. Four child anxiety profiles were obtained by the latent class analysis technique: Low Anxiety, Moderate Anxiety, High Anxiety, and Low Anxiety School-type. The four anxious groups significantly differed in all attributions of failure and in attributions of success to ability and effort, with effect sizes ranging from small to large (d = 0.24 to 0.99). The group with the highest anxiety levels attributed its failures more to the lack of ability and effort, and less to external causes. This group attributed its successes less to ability and effort. However, the Low Anxiety School-type group attributed its failures more to external causes and its successes more to ability and effort. The practical implications of these findings suggest that applying cognitive-behavioral programs for anxiety with a component of attribution retraining could be useful to improve both anxiety levels and the maladaptive attributional pattern of each child anxiety profile.