Construction and Validation of an Attitude-Toward-Mathematics Scale for Psychology Students

The aim of this work was to present the construction process of an attitude-toward-mathematics scale for students of Psychology. The most widely reported dimensions of the construct in literature were taken as reference and items were generated to make these dimensions operational. Expert judgment and a pilot test were used to reduce the number of items. The items accepted were administered to a sample of 2814 students. Three relevant dimensions were identified using exploratory factor analysis (affection-motivation, confidence and usefulness), which were replicated in a confirmatory study. This result provided evidence of construct validity. Optimal indicators of internal consistency and temporal stability were obtained. The factor structure obtained is comparable to those reported in other studies measuring the same construct.