When Anxiety Meets Anxiety: A Dyadic Co-Regulation Model of Teacher-Student Mathematics Anxiety in Special Education

Research on mathematics anxiety (MA) transmission has examined how teacher anxiety shapes student outcomes through instructional behavior. A more complex reality remains unaddressed. Teachers supporting students with mathematics difficulties do so under emotional conditions that may compromise their own regulatory resources, and these conditions may interact with the anxiety they are trying to relieve. The current paper draws on interpersonal complementarity theory, cognitive reappraisal theory, and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework of social-emotional competencies to propose a closed-loop dyadic co-regulation model of teacher-student MA in elementary special education mathematics instruction. In this model, students’ MA-related, low-agency behavioral cues are proposed to elicit complementary, controlling teacher responses that, in turn, heighten students’ MA. We theorize teacher MA and mathematics teaching anxiety (MTA), treated jointly, as an amplifying moderator of this loop. Special education settings are expected to be particularly susceptible, given their concentrated dyadic format and the fact that many special education teachers lack formal mathematics preparation. Among teachers, MA and MTA tend to co-occur. Teacher cognitive reappraisal, enabled by self-awareness and social awareness, is proposed as the regulatory entry point for interrupting this loop. The model generates testable predictions and argues for incorporating dyadic regulatory awareness into special education teacher preparation.