An epidemiological model for predicting students' mathematics anxiety

Mathematics anxiety is one of the influential factors on students' mathematical performance as a negative relationship between students' mathematics anxiety and mathematical performances has been frequently reported. Predicting students' mathematics anxiety can help educators to have a better understanding of students, and potentially could help them to know if specific interventions are needed to design to control students' anxiety level. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution of diseases and other health matters. Recently, epidemiological modeling has been widely used as a tool to predict future behaviors in social sciences, economics, and disease progression. In the present study, an epidemiological model is designed to predict undergraduate students' mathematics anxiety level. The findings show that a high percentage of students, approximately 70%, will suffer from high mathematics anxiety in near future.