Forty trainees, consultants, and resource persons attended the 3-day Institute held in Topeka, Kansas. Among the Institute's objectives were to: provide a basic orientation to the roles and functions ...of the aging services, programs, and the field of gerontology; examine aging services and benefits, both legislative and programmatic relating to Chicano communities; aid the Chicano community workers to develop skills and strategies that would result in a more effective utilization of aging resources, e.g., how to effectively follow-up on referrals in order to assure that services are being provided or to ascertain why they are not being provided; and document data on the Chicano elderly's needs in the State in order to set priorities for development of service programs which would be accessible to them. Four major areas of need were reflected--health, housing, retirement roles, and economic issues. Training was provided through lecture presentations by Institute staff, small group workshops, film and panel presentations, recording of proceedings, and evaluation. This report outlines the Institute's activities and gives four of the presentations--"Remarks on the Spanish Speaking Elderly and Programs for the Aged in Kansas"; "The Aged and the Political Process"; "The Role of the Aged in a Colonized Situation"; and "Strategies for Action". (NQ)
Background
Numerous studies, most of them involving adolescents and adults, have evidenced a moderate negative relationship between math anxiety and math performance. There are, however, a limited ...number of studies that have addressed the mechanisms underlying this relation.
Aims
This study aimed to investigate the role of two possible mediational mechanisms between math anxiety and math performance. Specifically, we sought to test the simultaneous mediating role of working memory and math self‐concept.
Sample
A total of 167 children aged 8–12 years participated in this study.
Methods
Children completed a set of questionnaires used to assess math and trait anxiety, math self‐concept as well as measures of math fluency and math problem‐solving. Teachers were asked to rate each student's math achievement. As measures of working memory, two backward span tasks were administered to the children.
Results
A series of multiple mediation analyses were conducted. Results indicated that both mediators (working memory and math self‐concept) contributed to explaining the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement.
Conclusions
Results suggest that working memory and self‐concept could be worth considering when designing interventions aimed at helping students with math anxiety. Longitudinal designs could also be used to better understand the mediational mechanisms that may explain the relationship between math anxiety and math performance.
