How mathematics anxiety emerges among elementary school students: A process model of its social and emotional formation

Mathematics anxiety among elementary students is often associated with low achievement, diminished confidence, and avoidance, yet its developmental formation remains insufficiently understood. This study develops an empirically grounded process model explaining how mathematics anxiety emerges through social and emotional experiences. Using a qualitative interpretive design informed by Gioia’s methodology, we studied 10 students in grades IV–VI and five mathematics teachers at SDN 006 Langgini and SDN 004 Langgini, Bangkinang, Kampar, Indonesia. Data from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and learning documents were analyzed through first-order concepts, second-order themes, and aggregate dimensions, supported by constant comparison, triangulation, member checking, and reflexivity. Findings identify four interconnected stages. First, students encounter recurring negative mathematical experiences, including conceptual difficulties, poor performance, mistakes, and unfavorable social evaluation. Second, they interpret these experiences as signs of personal mathematical inadequacy. Third, mathematics becomes an emotionally threatening domain marked by anticipated failure, embarrassment, and evaluative pressure. Fourth, anxiety becomes internalized as a mathematics-avoidance identity, expressed through withdrawal, limited participation, dependence on others, and reluctance to engage. The model reframes mathematics anxiety as a socially shaped developmental process and underscores the need for psychologically supportive mathematics classrooms, timely constructive feedback, and early interventions targeting emotions, competence beliefs, and mathematical identity.