Mathematics anxiety in a longitudinal perspective. Reciprocal effects with teachers' clarity of instruction and competence support after transition to secondary school

Abstract Background Mathematics anxiety is negatively related to students' mathematics achievement and well‐being in school. Drawing on frameworks on instructional quality, emotion and motivation research, clarity of instruction and the competence support provided by teachers can be assumed to be reciprocally related to mathematics anxiety. Aims This study investigates reciprocal relationships between mathematics anxiety, student‐perceived clarity of instruction and competence support by mathematics teachers over the course of three school years. Sample The sample includes 1748 students (52.3% female; 61.0% academic track; 18.0% intermediate secondary school; 20.4% lower secondary school) from grades 5 to 7. Methods Cross‐lagged panel models (CLPMs) with three measuring points were used to examine the longitudinal reciprocal relations between self‐reported mathematics anxiety and clarity of instruction and competence support. Results The CLPMs showed that mathematics anxiety is stable over all three measuring points. Teachers' competence support did not significantly predict subsequent mathematics anxiety, but mathematics anxiety in fifth grade predicted students' perception of teachers' competence support 1 year later negatively. Teachers' clarity of instruction was positively associated with mathematics anxiety 1 year later, although this finding was exploratory and not robust across analyses. Conclusions The results show that mathematics anxiety is already a repeatedly observed emotion at the beginning of secondary school, which highlights the necessity of early prevention. Furthermore, the findings emphasize the importance of longitudinal research to better understand how students' mathematics anxiety and different facets of instructional quality are related over time.