Examining the dynamics of mathematics anxiety,perceived cost,and achievement: A control-value theory approach

Concerns about the influence of students’ perceived negative consequences of engagement in a task (i.e., cost) on their emotions, motivation, and cognition have increased in the last decade. The use of longitudinal models is needed to provide new insights into the role of perceived cost in mathematics learning. Grounded in the control-value theory, this study examined cross-lagged relations of mathematics anxiety, perceived cost, and mathematics achievement. The participants (N = 335) reported their mathematics anxiety and perceived cost four times during Grades 7 and 8, and their mathematics grades were attained from their school records. Cross-lagged panel model analysis revealed evidence of a long-term positive reciprocal relationship between mathematics anxiety and effort/emotional cost, a gradually diminished relationship between effort/emotional cost and mathematics performance, and a positive achievement to anxiety link during the transition between grade levels. Moreover, mathematics performance is a distal predictor of mathematics anxiety through effort/emotional cost rather than a proximal predictor or an outcome of anxiety. This study also clarified the distinction in the central role of effort/emotional versus opportunity cost in the interrelatedness of mathematics anxiety and performance, where the latter failed to demonstrate significant paths. Specific timing for interventions was discerned. Early cost prevention interventions along with considerations of academic achievement to alleviate both anxiety and perceived effort/emotional are highlighted as crucial for a positive high school mathematics experience.     

The long arm of work: A motivational conflict perspective on teacher strain

Teacher strain is seen typically as a phenomenon within the job domain. Drawing on effort-recovery theory as well as on research on work–family conflict and motivational interference, we propose that intrapsychic conflict between different life domains also contributes to teachers' emotional exhaustion. Findings based on self-reports of 234 teachers show that particularly the negative impact of work on teachers' private life related positively to their emotional exhaustion, and that this effect is mostly mediated by motivational interference effects in the social domain. Hence, adequate leisure experiences and detachment from work seem to be crucial to prevent prolonged emotional strain.