Sex, Grade Level, and the Relationship between Mathematics Attitude and Achievement in Children

Data on the mathematics attitudes and achievement of elementary school children (TV = 1,896) were gathered twice during the school year. Relationships between attitude and achievement were considered in connection with sex of student, grade level, type of achievement test, and time during the school year at which the measurements were taken. Findings indicated that observed relationships between attitudes and achievement were significantly stronger in boys than girls; with the measurement of computational compared with conceptual skills; and late during the school year compared with early in the school year. Relationships between attitude and achievement appeared also to increase with successive grade levels: however, this trend failed to reach significance at the .05 level.