Math anxiety: the impact on traditionally underserved and marginalized adult female undergraduate students in elementary statistics

The failure rate in elementary statistics for college students is cited to be as high as fifty percent with math anxiety identified as a chief contributing factor. Females are more prone to math anxiety than their male counterparts, and current research is exploring how a failure in elementary statistics for adult female undergraduate college students results in a higher dropout rate thus negatively affecting representation in the lucrative science, technology, engineer, and mathematical (STEM) careers for the underserved and marginalized female undergraduate population. The researcher advanced prior quantitative studies of research into math anxiety using a qualitative research case study to ask the following questions of administrators, faculty, and adult female students from an inner city four-year college: (a) What factors contribute to math anxiety in a population of female adult higher education students who are disadvantaged simultaneously by gender, race and or/ethnicity, economic status, and educational background as they pursue non-mathematical majors requiring enrollment in an elementary statistics course? (b) How do higher education administrators, faculty, and students believe math anxiety influences performance for a traditionally underserved and marginalized female adult student population in an elementary statistics course? (c) What strategies are identified by higher education administrators, faculty and students to help relieve math anxiety for a traditionally underserved and marginalized female adult student population in an elementary statistics course? Fifteen participants provided insights into the causes and effects of math anxiety offering suggestions regarding how to prevent and disable the harmful effects of math anxiety within the underserved and marginalized female undergraduate population. Major findings outlined are (a) the effect of early childhood stereotypical practices that diminish female competence in mathematical courses in comparison with males; (b) the academic organization’s failure to respond adequately to the