Comparing the Effectiveness of Wells' Metacognition Training with Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Training on Self-Efficacy of Students with Math Anxiety

Abstract

Objective:  The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Wells' metacognitive training with Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness training on the self-efficacy of math-anxious students.

Methods and Materials:  This was a quasi-experimental study with two experimental groups and a control group. The statistical population of this research included all female students in the second grade of high schools in the 6th district of Tehran during the academic year of 2021-2022. Among them, 45 students who met the entry criteria were selected through a multistage cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (one receiving Wells' metacognitive training for 8 sessions of 60 minutes and the other receiving Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness training for 8 sessions of 120 minutes) and a control group who received no intervention during that time. The research instruments included the Plake and Parker's Math Anxiety Scale and Sherer et al.'s General Self-Efficacy Scale. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics (central indices, dispersion, skewness, and kurtosis) and inferential statistics (multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with SPSS-23 software.

Findings:  There is a significant difference between the mean of the control group and the two experimental groups in both variables. However, no significant difference was observed between the two experimental groups.

Conclusion:  The results indicated that both Wells' metacognitive training and Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness training are effective in improving the self-efficacy of math-anxious students and both interventions are effective. However, the effectiveness of Wells' metacognitive training was similar to Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness training on academic self-efficacy