Coping Styles of the Mathematically Anxious as Assessed by the Miller Behavioral Style Scale

Two hundred and eighteen psychology and math students of Fort Hays State University helped to investigate the relationships between math anxiety and a coping style based on the attentional process. These two constructs were measured by the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) and the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS). The actual investigation used two subscales from each of the measures; the Mathematics Test Anxiety Scale and the Numerical Anxiety Scale (Rounds & Hendel, 1980) from the MARS, and the Monitor and Blunter subscales from the MBSS (Miller, 1987). A monitor looks for more information when under threat while a blunter avoids seeking information when under threat. Each individual was categorized as a high or low monitor and blunter, as well as high or low anxious on both of the math anxiety subscales. Relations between subscales were examined within and between various categories of subjects. A relationship was found between the 2 high monitor categories and high math anxiety. A factor analysis of the MARS replicated the existence of the two subscales developed by Rounds and Hendel (1980)