A Comparison of Mathematics Anxiety among Students by Gender

The general purpose of this research was the study of mathematics anxiety among high school male and female students. To assess the students’ mathematics anxiety, Chiu and Henry's “Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC)”, the reliability and validity of which had previously been calculated, was used. The population was consisted of all high school science and mathematics students that studied in four districts in Shiraz, and participants were selected by random-cluster sampling. The finding indicated that: There was no statistical significant difference between girls and boys in respect to mathematics anxiety. In mathematics learning anxiety dimension, there was no significant difference between girls and boys. But in respect to mathematics problem solving and evaluation, girls gained higher mean, while in respect to anxiety created in students through teacher, boys gained higher mean, and these differences became significant.