ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MAS) in General Mathematics for 2015/2016 academic session for undergraduate students in tertiary institutions in Abia State, Nigeria. The study was guided by six research questions and two hypotheses. In this study, the instrument for data collection was Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Tertiary Institutions (MAS). The first part of the instrument sought information about the personal data of the undergraduate students in terms of gender, age, and level; course and department. The second part was based on 92 items in mathematics anxiety scale which respondents were asked to indicate the degree of anxiety experienced when taking mathematics lessons and tests. The study was carried out in two Tertiary Institutions in Abia state of Nigeria. The population of the study was 1068 which comprised 492 male students and 576 female students. The sample size of 291 respondents was selected using Taro Yamane's formular which comprised 156 males and 135 females. The four Likert-response scale was preferred for its ease of use and general familiarity. The different factor structures of the research questions were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The use of Cronbach Alpha and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were employed for stability and internal consistency. A result from this research showed Anxiety as a construct that is made up of three components which comprised fear, tension, and low selfesteem. These are contributory factors to causes of Anxiety. Analyses of Research question two showed that the internal consistency of MAS was 0.86, while the internal consistencies of the subscales were in the range of 0.68 to 0.73 being highest for fear subscale (MAS-F) and lowest for Low esteem subscale (MAS-L). A reliability index above 0.50 indicated that the instrument was reliable. The coefficient of stability of MAS was 0.86, while coefficients of stability of the subscales were in the range of 0.78 to 0.85 being highest for fear subscale (MAS-F) and lowest for low self-esteem subscale (MAS-L). The inter-correlations among MAS and its subsets were in the range of 0.50-0.90. Based on the findings, this study recommended, among others, that the developed and validated mathematics anxiety scale be used by guidance counselors and mathematics lecturers in higher institutions for detecting Anxiety among the students and counsel appropriately.