Mathematics anxiety, mathematics achievement, gender, and socio‐economic status among Arab secondary students in Israel

Several researchers have discussed the differences between males and females in mathematics achievement and mathematics anxiety. Some believe that there are genetic reasons for these differences, but the majority blame society for causing those differences. In this study, two Arab schools in Israel, one of which has students who come from a high socio‐economic status (SES) and the other of which has students who come from a low SES, were compared on the mathematics anxiety rating scale (MARS). Also subgroups of males and females were compared on MARS and mathematics achievement, measured by the average grade in mathematics final examinations for the last four trimesters. The results of this study indicate that the effect of the SES variable could be stronger than that of the gender variable on both mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement, which were found to be also significantly correlated.