Math Anxiety and Math Achievement: Does Metacognitive Knowledge of Self and Task Determine Them?

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether math anxiety influences math achievement through each of three dimensions of metacognitive knowledge (i.e., metacognitive knowledge of self, task, and strategy), as well as through metacognitive knowledge itself. Data were collected from 370 5th graders from five elementary schools in South Jakarta, Indonesia. Results of the parallel multiple mediation analysis showed that math anxiety significantly influenced math achievement through the role of metacognitive knowledge as the mediator. Math anxiety also significantly influenced math achievement both through metacognitive knowledge of self and through metacognitive knowledge of task. However, the effect of math anxiety on math achievement was not significant when mediated by metacognitive knowledge of strategy.