Cognitive, affective and sociological predictors of school performance in mathematics

Abstract

Mathematics is a key school subject for some of the most lucrative and economically important careers. Low mathematics performance in school is associated with low psychometric intelligence, family socioeconomic status (SES), specific mathematical abilities, and high mathematics anxiety. We used a sample of Hungarian schoolchildren (N = 102, mean age = 12.3 years) to directly compare the predictive power of general intelligence, specific mathematical abilities measured by the Pedagogical Examination of Dyscalculia (DPV), mathematics anxiety, and socioeconomic status for mathematics grades. Mathematics grades correlated with IQ, specific mathematic ability, mathematics anxiety, and a composite measure of family SES. The WISC-IV showcased a manifest correlation of 0.62 and a latent correlation of 0.78 with the DPV and high manifest (r=-0.53) and latent (r=-0.59) correlations with mathematics anxiety. IQ alone accounted for 52% of the variance in mathematics grades. IQ, specific mathematical ability, family SES and mathematics anxiety jointly accounted for 56% of the variance in grades, with a non-significant contribution of specific mathematical ability and family SES over IQ and a marginal contribution of mathematics anxiety. Our results show that psychometric intelligence is the most important predictor of mathematics grades, while family SES and specific mathematical abilities are only associated with grades to the extent they reflect psychometric intelligence. The results, however, confirmed a small role of mathematics anxiety over intelligence in predicting grades.