American International Journal of Social Science

Math Anxiety of Students with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder
Alexandra Georgiou, Spyridon-Georgios Soulis, Danai Rapti, Katerina Papanikolaou

Abstract
It is widely accepted that many students with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HF-ASD) experience anxiety which reportedly affects their performance at school and particularly their abilities in mathematics. However, although mathematics is an area of great interest for students with HF-ASD, the degree of their math anxiety is not clear. The present research examined the math anxiety of 32 students with HF-ASD, aged 12 to 17, and 32 typical developing (TD) students who were chosen as a control group. The two groups of students were matched for age, gender and full IQ scale while they were exposed to the same level of mathematics curriculum material. Results showed that students with HF-ASD experience significantly lower math anxiety compared to TD students. Furthermore, in both groups of students, factors such as their grade in mathematics, their attitude towards mathematics and the support they receive significantly affect their math anxiety.

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