The Influence of mathematical meta-emotions on the Perceived Value of Mathematical Tasks Among Secondary School Students: The Moderating Role of Peer Relationships

In response to the widespread issue of maths anxiety among secondary school students today, this study focuses on the variable of meta-emotions towards mathematics. It explores how students’ ability to monitor and regulate their emotions towards maths learning influences their perceived value of maths tasks, and examines the moderating role of peer relationships in this context. This study employed convenience sampling to select 294 junior secondary school students from a secondary school in Chengdu as the study sample. A questionnaire survey method was used, with data collected via three revised scales, and statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS and the PROCESS macro. The results indicate that meta-emotions towards mathematics positively predict task value (r = 0.698, β = 0.503, p < 0.001), with significant positive correlations between all three variables in every pair; the interaction term between meta-emotions towards mathematics and peer relationships showed no significant moderating effect (β = 0.097, p = 0.082), with high levels of peer relationships only slightly increasing the prediction slope. The findings suggest that enhancing mathematical meta-affect can effectively strengthen students’ sense of the value of mathematical tasks, whilst the moderating effect of peer relationships is not significant; future research may explore additional moderating variables.