Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Andrew S. Richman

Second Advisor

Valerie H. Shinas

Third Advisor

Shannon Audley

Abstract

Mathematics anxiety, defined as a fear that hampers engagement in mathematical tasks (Richardson & Suinn, 1972), affects nearly 50% of students (Johnston-Wilder et al., 2014) and has a disproportionate impact on female students (Devine et al., 2018; Stoet et al., 2016). Math anxiety is often treated in the research literature as a relatively stable trait. This perspective may not fully capture how anxiety manifests in specific moments of mathematical engagement or account for the role of environmental conditions that can both precipitate and mitigate anxious responses. In response to these gaps, this study investigates how mathematics anxiety manifests in real time for middle school girls and how mathematics resilience-focused interventions shape these experiences. Grounded in Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1997), this study draws on the concept of reciprocal determinism to examine how personal beliefs (e.g., self-efficacy), behavioral responses (e.g., persistence or withdrawal), and environmental supports (e.g., mentor guidance, task design) collectively shape students’ mathematical experiences. This dissertation advances existing research by conceptualizing mathematics anxiety and mathematics resilience, the willingness to persist through mathematical difficulty (Johnston-Wilder & Lee, 2008), as dynamically interacting, context-dependent processes situated within authentic learning environments. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, the research focuses on middle school girls participating in a weeklong summer mathematics camp. Students in this case study demonstrated development in mathematical resilience, particularly in the domains of value and struggle. The interventions yielded varied outcomes; the same environmental supports appeared to influence students’ beliefs and behaviors differently. These findings illustrate how anxiety and resilience fluctuate in response to environmental supports and students’ individual beliefs. This study offers a real-time analysis of the dynamic interaction between mathematics anxiety and mathematics resilience within an authentic learning environment and provides a framework for educators seeking to implement adaptable, context-sensitive strategies that mitigate math anxiety while promoting sustained engagement among female students.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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