Factors Influencing Young Children’s Mathematical Wellbeing in the United States

Mathematical wellbeing (MWB) is a relatively new construct that considers students’ subjective experiences of feeling good and functioning well while doing mathematics. While current literature on MWB is theoretically rich, empirical analyses have been limited to Australasian and Asian contexts. In this study, we use a nationally representative data set of 408 U.S. students aged 9–14 to explore how race, age, ethnicity, gender, and grades in math are correlated with overall mathematical wellbeing for a U.S. population. Using self-report survey data, we found four noteworthy findings for our U.S. sample: (1) there was no association between students’ age, race, or ethnicity and MWB; (2) girls reported significantly lower levels of MWB than boys with similar grades; (3) student grades were significantly and positively associated with MWB. Our findings both corroborate and contradict prior literature from tangential bodies of research. When comparing our research with a U.S. sample to the broader research on MWB, the findings suggest that students’ experiences of MWB are culturally dependent.