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Genetic factors underlie the association between anxiety, attitudes and performance in mathematics

View ORCID ProfileMargherita Malanchini, View ORCID ProfileKaili Rimfeld, Zhe Wang, Stephen A. Petrill, Elliot M. Tucker-Dob, View ORCID ProfileRobert Plomin, View ORCID ProfileYulia Kovas
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/719393
Margherita Malanchini
1Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary University of London
2MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
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  • For correspondence: m.malanchini@qmul.ac.uk
Kaili Rimfeld
2MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
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Zhe Wang
3Department of Human Development and Family studies, Texas Tech University, United States
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Stephen A. Petrill
4Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
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Elliot M. Tucker-Dob
5Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, United States
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Robert Plomin
2MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, United Kingdom
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Yulia Kovas
6Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
7International Centre for Research in Human Development, Tomsk State University, Russia
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Abstract

Students struggling with mathematics anxiety (MA) tend to show lower levels of mathematics self-efficacy and interest as well as lower performance. The current study addresses: (1) how MA relates to different aspects of mathematics attitudes (self-efficacy and interest), ability (understanding numbers, problem-solving ability, and approximate number sense) and achievement (exam scores); (2) to what extent these observed relations are explained by overlapping genetic and environmental factors; and (3) the role of general anxiety in accounting for these associations. The sample comprised 3,410 twin pairs aged 16-21 years, from the Twins Early Development Study. Negative associations of comparable strength emerged between MA and the two measures of mathematics attitudes, phenotypically (∼ -.45) and genetically (∼ -.70). Moderate negative phenotypic (∼ -.35) and strong genetic (∼ -.70) associations were observed between MA and measures of mathematics performance. The only exception was approximate number sense whose phenotypic (-.10) and genetic (-.31) relation with MA was weaker. Multivariate quantitative genetic analyses indicated that all mathematics related measures combined accounted for ∼75% of the genetic variance in MA and ∼20% of its environmental variance. Genetic effects were largely shared across all measures of mathematics anxiety, attitudes, abilities and achievement, with the exception of approximate number sense. This genetic overlap was not accounted for by general anxiety. These results have important implications for future genetic research concerned with identifying the genetic underpinnings of individual variation in mathematics-related traits, as well as for developmental research into how children select and modify their mathematics-related experiences partly based on their genetic predispositions.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted July 31, 2019.
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Genetic factors underlie the association between anxiety, attitudes and performance in mathematics
Margherita Malanchini, Kaili Rimfeld, Zhe Wang, Stephen A. Petrill, Elliot M. Tucker-Dob, Robert Plomin, Yulia Kovas
bioRxiv 719393; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/719393
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Genetic factors underlie the association between anxiety, attitudes and performance in mathematics
Margherita Malanchini, Kaili Rimfeld, Zhe Wang, Stephen A. Petrill, Elliot M. Tucker-Dob, Robert Plomin, Yulia Kovas
bioRxiv 719393; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/719393

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