Clinical and Psychophysiological Manifestations of Mathematics Anxiety
The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and psychophysiological manifestations of mathematics anxiety (MA) in children and to evaluate the effectiveness of Аnvifen drug use in treatment of this disorder. Under our supervision there were 40 children suffering from MA at the age of 10 to 13 years. The control group consisted of 30 children aged 10 to 13 years with no symptoms of anxiety disorders. The following research methods were used in the work: CMAS (The Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale) explicit anxiety scale; the Russian version of sMARS (short Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale); “Random Access Memory” method for quantifying working memory; “Analytical mathematics abilities. Form A” psychological test; T.O.V.A. (Test of Variables of Attention) psychophysiological test to assess the state of attention and the level of impulsivity. The study results showed a significant increase in the indicators of MA and explicit anxiety, a decrease in mathematical abilities, a decrease in attention and working memory, an increased level of impulsivity and exhaustion in MA children. Furthermore, tension headaches and sleep disorders were registered significantly more frequently in children with MA. When reevaluating the condition of children treated with Аnvifen, improvement was noted in 60.0% of cases, and in addition to normalizing the emotional background and improving cognitive functions, there was also a decrease in the severity of headaches and sleep disorders.