Self-efficacy and math anxiety as correlates of mathematical communication ability among Grade VII students

Mathematical communication enables students to express ideas, justify reasoning, and use symbolic, visual, and verbal representations. Although self-efficacy and math anxiety are theorised to relate to mathematics performance, their associations with communication-specific outcomes remain unclear. This study examined whether self-efficacy and math anxiety predicted the mathematical communication ability of Grade VII students in public junior high schools in Depok District, Sleman Regency, Indonesia. Using a quantitative ex-post facto correlational design, six intact classes (N = 190) were selected from a population of 704 students through cluster random sampling. Data were collected using an 18-item self-efficacy questionnaire (α = .891), a 42-item math anxiety questionnaire (α = .946), and a two-item mathematical communication essay test (reported reliability coefficient = .349) and were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Neither self-efficacy (β = .075, t = 0.555, p = .580) nor math anxiety (β = .083, t = 0.611, p = .542) was a significant predictor, and the overall model was non-significant, F(2, 187) = 2.207, p = .113, R² = .023. The two affective variables therefore explained little variance in mathematical communication. These findings underscore the need for communication-specific affective measures, broader outcome assessment, and modelling of classroom clustering.