September 25, 2025 – 1:00 p.m. On-site and online session (Room M204, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy). Language: English.

Monika Szczygieł

Jagiellonian University

Math anxiety is defined as a feeling of tension and worry that hinders the performance of numerical operations and the solving of mathematical problems, both in academic settings and in everyday life. While math anxiety is often examined in the context of explaining differences in mathematical achievement, relatively little is known about the determinants of this phenomenon. The purpose of this talk is to present and discuss the results of studies conducted among Polish children, adolescents, and adults regarding a broad range of predictors of math anxiety: sociodemographic factors (e.g., gender, age), math-domain-specific variables (e.g., math achievement, intellectual helplessness in mathematics), domain-general affective factors (e.g., trait and test anxiety), domain-general cognitive variables (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory), family-related factors (e.g., home numeracy activity, parental education), and school-related factors (e.g., school characteristics, teaching methods). The results suggest that at the beginning of education, math trait anxiety is primarily driven by emotions, but with the progression of education, it becomes increasingly dependent on beliefs about mathematics.

Bio

Dr Monika Szczygieł is an assistant professor at the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology named after Stefan Szuman, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, and a key expert on diagnostic tools at the Educational Research Institute - National Research Institute, and Secretary of the Psychology Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She holds master’s degrees in psychology and education, and a PhD in psychology. Her research interests include educational and cognitive psychology (particularly mathematical abilities, emotions, and beliefs related to learning mathematics), as well as methodology and statistics.