the amas was administered to 298 undergraduate students ( 133 males and 165 females ) of tabriz university in iran who majored in different disciplines of human sciences ; they were enrolled in entry - level mathematics courses and voluntarily participated in the study .
college research examination board approved the research protocol . while adapting the instruments to iranian culture and writing the persian form , we initially translated the scales into persian . the persian version of the scales was translated into english by the second author from the department of english language teaching , who specializes in motivation research , and then it was independently back - translated by two lecturers .
the independent translations resulted in general linguistic agreement , with only minor differences in wording of the items .
disagreements over wording were solved through discussion by the two psychologists in consultation with the first author .
the instruments used in this study were as follows : abbreviated math anxiety scale ( amas ) ( 19 ) ; is a 9-item measure of mathematics anxiety that yields the lma and mea subscales , which accounted for 70% of the variance from an exploratory factor analysis using principal components extraction with varimax rotation .
items on the amas were responded to using a 5-point likert - type scale , ranging from 1 ( low anxiety ) to 5 ( high anxiety ) , with the total score representing a summation of the nine items .
as indexed by cronbach 's  , internal consistency in this study was excellent within the amas ( =.90 ) , as well as the lma ( =.85 ) and mea subscales ( =.88 ) .
students motivation - to - learn - mathematics ( smot ) scale that covered the four dimensions of motivation to learn mathematics . the two scales , which had 12 and 28 items , respectively , were embedded in a 108-item students questionnaire of a major study conducted by one of the researchers ( 24 ) on  factors related to the motivation to learn mathematics among secondary school students in kenya 's nairobi and rift valley provinces .
questionnaire items were reviewed and found to be content valid by a panel of educational researchers in kenya . a pilot test in nyandarua and nyeri districts that have similar students , schools and learning conditions with those in the study area indicated cronbach alpha reliability coefficients of 0.88 and 0.89 for mathematics self - concept ( msc ) and smot , respectively .
the researchers visited the 32-selected schools and arranged with head teachers and heads of mathematics departments to group administer the questionnaires to students .
the response rate achieved after a series of follow - ups was 98.3% , which the researchers considered satisfactory for the study .
statistics anxiety measure ( sam ) ( 25 ) is a 23-item questionnaire that comprises six discrete subscales : anxiety , performance history and self - concept , expectations , attitude , and fearful behavior . in this study , however , four subscales were utilized . in general ,
the internal consistent reliability of overall scale ( =0.93 ) as well as sub - scales ranged from high to excellent ( a=.82.95 ) .
first , which existing factor structure ( one and two factor structures ) provides an acceptable measurement model for the 9-item amas ? to address this question , cfa was used to impose each of the two factor structures on two data sets to evaluate each model 's goodness - of - fit .
second , is there measurement invariance with respect to gender ? to address this question ,
multigroup cfa was used to test hypotheses about the invariance of the 9-item amas across males and females .
one - way analysis of variance ( anova ) was also used to compare gender differences on the subscale of amas .
amos was used to perform the cfas of the amas analyzing the fit of models and their respective parameter estimates in two distinct stages . in stage 1 ,
first , the nine items of the amas were expected to load onto a single latent factor ( model 1 . ) .
second , run for the two - factor model was suggested by hopko et al ( 19 ) who reported that a two - factor model provided a better fit to the data than a single factor . in order to rule out the possibility that this model is superior because any two - factor model would fit the data better than the one - factor model , an alternative two - factor model was tested , with one factor corresponding to the first 4 items and the second factor corresponding to items 5 ( model 2 ) .
the five items ( 1,3,6,7,8 , and 9 ) of the math anxiety subscale of the amas were assigned to the first factor , and one factor corresponded to the four items ( items 2 , 4 , 5 , and 8) ( model 3 ) . in stage 2 , multiple group cfa was used to test whether the two - factor structure of the amas operate equivalently across both male and female students .
this involved comparing the goodness - of - fit  2 of two nested cfa models : one constraining the magnitudes of the factor loadings to be equal for male and female students , and the other omitting this invariance constraint . 

several fit indices were examined to evaluate the overall fit of each model :  ( tests the hypothesis that an unconstrained model fits the covariance or correlation matrix as well as the given model ; ideally values should not be significant ) ; comparative fit index ( cfi ; comparison of the hypothesized model with a model in which all correlations among variables are zero , and where values around .90 indicate very good fit ) ; root - mean - square error of approximation ( rmsea ; values of .08 or below indicate reasonable fit for the model ; tucker - lewis index ( tli ) and the incremental fit index ( ifi ) , with values close to .95 being indicative of good fit ( 28 ) ; akaike information criterion ( aic ; aic close to zero reflects good fit and between two aic measures , the lower one reflects the model with the better fit)(27 ) 
  descriptive statistics for amas items and correlations of individual items and subscales / total scale .
the amas was administered to 298 undergraduate students ( 133 males and 165 females ) of tabriz university in iran who majored in different disciplines of human sciences ; they were enrolled in entry - level mathematics courses and voluntarily participated in the study .
while adapting the instruments to iranian culture and writing the persian form , we initially translated the scales into persian . the persian version of the scales was translated into english by the second author from the department of english language teaching , who specializes in motivation research , and then it was independently back - translated by two lecturers .
the independent translations resulted in general linguistic agreement , with only minor differences in wording of the items .
disagreements over wording were solved through discussion by the two psychologists in consultation with the first author .
the instruments used in this study were as follows : abbreviated math anxiety scale ( amas ) ( 19 ) ; is a 9-item measure of mathematics anxiety that yields the lma and mea subscales , which accounted for 70% of the variance from an exploratory factor analysis using principal components extraction with varimax rotation .
items on the amas were responded to using a 5-point likert - type scale , ranging from 1 ( low anxiety ) to 5 ( high anxiety ) , with the total score representing a summation of the nine items .
as indexed by cronbach 's  , internal consistency in this study was excellent within the amas ( =.90 ) , as well as the lma ( =.85 ) and mea subscales ( =.88 ) .
students motivation - to - learn - mathematics ( smot ) scale that covered the four dimensions of motivation to learn mathematics .
the two scales , which had 12 and 28 items , respectively , were embedded in a 108-item students questionnaire of a major study conducted by one of the researchers ( 24 ) on  factors related to the motivation to learn mathematics among secondary school students in kenya 's nairobi and rift valley provinces .
questionnaire items were reviewed and found to be content valid by a panel of educational researchers in kenya . a pilot test in nyandarua and nyeri districts that have similar students , schools and learning conditions with those in the study area indicated cronbach alpha reliability coefficients of 0.88 and 0.89 for mathematics self - concept ( msc ) and smot , respectively .
the researchers visited the 32-selected schools and arranged with head teachers and heads of mathematics departments to group administer the questionnaires to students .
the response rate achieved after a series of follow - ups was 98.3% , which the researchers considered satisfactory for the study .
statistics anxiety measure ( sam ) ( 25 ) is a 23-item questionnaire that comprises six discrete subscales : anxiety , performance history and self - concept , expectations , attitude , and fearful behavior . in this study , however , four subscales were utilized . in general ,
the internal consistent reliability of overall scale ( =0.93 ) as well as sub - scales ranged from high to excellent ( a=.82.95 ) .
the instruments used in this study were as follows : abbreviated math anxiety scale ( amas ) ( 19 ) ; is a 9-item measure of mathematics anxiety that yields the lma and mea subscales , which accounted for 70% of the variance from an exploratory factor analysis using principal components extraction with varimax rotation .
items on the amas were responded to using a 5-point likert - type scale , ranging from 1 ( low anxiety ) to 5 ( high anxiety ) , with the total score representing a summation of the nine items .
as indexed by cronbach 's  , internal consistency in this study was excellent within the amas ( =.90 ) , as well as the lma ( =.85 ) and mea subscales ( =.88 ) .
students motivation - to - learn - mathematics ( smot ) scale that covered the four dimensions of motivation to learn mathematics .
the two scales , which had 12 and 28 items , respectively , were embedded in a 108-item students questionnaire of a major study conducted by one of the researchers ( 24 ) on  factors related to the motivation to learn mathematics among secondary school students in kenya 's nairobi and rift valley provinces .
questionnaire items were reviewed and found to be content valid by a panel of educational researchers in kenya .
a pilot test in nyandarua and nyeri districts that have similar students , schools and learning conditions with those in the study area indicated cronbach alpha reliability coefficients of 0.88 and 0.89 for mathematics self - concept ( msc ) and smot , respectively .
the researchers visited the 32-selected schools and arranged with head teachers and heads of mathematics departments to group administer the questionnaires to students .
the response rate achieved after a series of follow - ups was 98.3% , which the researchers considered satisfactory for the study .
statistics anxiety measure ( sam ) ( 25 ) is a 23-item questionnaire that comprises six discrete subscales : anxiety , performance history and self - concept , expectations , attitude , and fearful behavior . in this study , however , four subscales were utilized . in general ,
the internal consistent reliability of overall scale ( =0.93 ) as well as sub - scales ranged from high to excellent ( a=.82.95 ) .
first , which existing factor structure ( one and two factor structures ) provides an acceptable measurement model for the 9-item amas ? to address this question , cfa was used to impose each of the two factor structures on two data sets to evaluate each model 's goodness - of - fit .
second , is there measurement invariance with respect to gender ? to address this question ,
multigroup cfa was used to test hypotheses about the invariance of the 9-item amas across males and females .
one - way analysis of variance ( anova ) was also used to compare gender differences on the subscale of amas .
amos was used to perform the cfas of the amas analyzing the fit of models and their respective parameter estimates in two distinct stages . in stage 1 ,
first , the nine items of the amas were expected to load onto a single latent factor ( model 1 . ) .
second , run for the two - factor model was suggested by hopko et al ( 19 ) who reported that a two - factor model provided a better fit to the data than a single factor . in order to rule out the possibility that this model is superior because any two - factor model would fit the data better than the one - factor model , an alternative two - factor model was tested , with one factor corresponding to the first 4 items and the second factor corresponding to items 5 ( model 2 ) .
the five items ( 1,3,6,7,8 , and 9 ) of the math anxiety subscale of the amas were assigned to the first factor , and one factor corresponded to the four items ( items 2 , 4 , 5 , and 8) ( model 3 ) . in stage 2 ,
multiple group cfa was used to test whether the two - factor structure of the amas operate equivalently across both male and female students .
this involved comparing the goodness - of - fit  2 of two nested cfa models : one constraining the magnitudes of the factor loadings to be equal for male and female students , and the other omitting this invariance constraint . 

several fit indices were examined to evaluate the overall fit of each model :  ( tests the hypothesis that an unconstrained model fits the covariance or correlation matrix as well as the given model ; ideally values should not be significant ) ; comparative fit index ( cfi ; comparison of the hypothesized model with a model in which all correlations among variables are zero , and where values around .90 indicate very good fit ) ; root - mean - square error of approximation ( rmsea ; values of .08 or below indicate reasonable fit for the model ; tucker - lewis index ( tli ) and the incremental fit index ( ifi ) , with values close to .95 being indicative of good fit ( 28 ) ; akaike information criterion ( aic ; aic close to zero reflects good fit and between two aic measures , the lower one reflects the model with the better fit)(27 ) 
  descriptive statistics for amas items and correlations of individual items and subscales / total scale . n=298
descriptive statistics for amas items and correlations between each item and their own subscales and between each item and the total scale are illustrated in table 1 .
almost all correlations between individual items and the total scale ranged from .41 to .66 .
correlations between individual items and their respective subscales ranged from .42 to .61 for learning mathematics anxiety , from .54 to .66 for mathematics evaluation anxiety . 
 
scores obtained from the nine - item amas had a cronbach 's alpha of .82 .
the internal consistency estimates of the two factors were as follows : learning mathematics anxiety ( five items ; =.75 ) , and mathematics evaluation anxiety ( four items ; =.79 ) .
we used smot and sam to provide estimates of convergent validity for the amas scores .
we expected that the scores on the nine - item amas , factor 1- learning mathematics anxiety and factor 2-mathematics evaluation anxiety , would be negatively correlated with scores from subscale of smot .
we expected the construct of amas to be more closely aligned with subscales of statistics anxiety measure ; hence , we expected larger correlations between amas scores and subscales of sam scores than between amas scores and smot scores .
as predicted , scores obtained from fearful behavior factor ( r=.58 ) , attitude factor ( r=.55 ) expectations factor ( r=.59 ) , and history and self - concept ( r=.48 ) were positively correlated with scores from amas total . likewise , obtained scores from smot total ( r=.40 ) , interest ( r=.37 ) , relevance ( r=.22 ) satisfaction ( r=.25 ) and perceived probability of success ( r=.46 ) were also negatively correlated with obtained scores from amas as expected ( see table 2 ) . in order to examine possible between - group differences in responses to the amas , we ran a one - way analysis of variance ( anova ) with the subscales of amas ( learning mathematics anxiety , mathematics evaluation anxiety ) as the dependent variable and participants sex as independent variable . results showed participants sex was significantly related to mathematics evaluation anxiety , f ( 1 , 296)=14.51 , p<.001 ) such that female students had lower scores ( m=5.21 , sd=3.59 ) than male students ( m=6.98 , sd=4.44 ) .
however , participants sex was not significantly related to learning mathematics anxiety f ( 1 , 296)=.574 , p>.05 . in other words , male students reported more mathematics evaluation anxiety than female students did . to evaluate the goodness - of - fit of three alternative measurement models for the amas , cfa was first run for a one - factor solution in which all 9 items loaded on to a single general strengths factor ( model a ) and subsequently , it was run for the two - factor model ( b ) suggested by hopko et al .
in all the analyses the chi - square goodness of fit statistic is large and significant beyond the 0.001 level , rather than being small and associated with a high probability , which would indicate a close fit between model and data . however , this statistic is sensitive to sample size and does not provide a realistic test of the fit of models ( 27 ) . 
  confirmatory factor analysis showing the two - factor structure of the amas among undergraduate students goodness - of - fit statistics and their comparisons for three alternative measurement models for the 9-item amas note : model 1=one factor ; model b = two factor split half ; model c = final hypothesized two - factor model the results of the initial estimation of the one factor model did not provide a satisfactory result with a chi - square value of 153.237 ( df=26 ) , which was significant at the p<.001 level .
other fit indices revealed a moderate fit ( rmsea=.13 ; tli=.78 ; cfi=.84 ; ifi=.84 ) .
the two - factor model ( model b ) where the items are split into two sets to form the factors fits the data no better than the one - factor ( =78.895 ; p=.001 ; rmsea=.08 ; tli=.91 ; cfi=.93 ; ifi=.93 ) . according to the suggestions of modification indices ,
covariances were set on the error variances of items 5 and 8 in the internality model based on the reason that items were loaded on one unique factor : mathematics evaluation anxiety .
these modifications improved the fit ( =60.793 ; p=.001 ; rmsea=.04 ; tli=.94 ; cfi=.95 ; ifi=.95 ) for the two - factor model , the correlation between the factors is 0.67 .
thus , although the two factors were interrelated , the overlap between them was only about 45% , indicating that these need be conceptualized as distinct factors .
we also compared directly the one and two factor models with the  and aic ( akaike information criterion ) statistics .
both statistics directly compare the fit of the two models after adjusting for differences in the degrees of freedom . in every case
the  was significant at .001 and the aic was greater than 25 ( conventionally aic>15 is considered very significant ) .
these results again strongly support the superiority of the two - factor model over the one factor and two - factor split half models ; subsequently , this model was considered optimal . in order to find out whether the model was invariant across gender ,
first , the two - factor model was tested separately for the male and female students . a prerequisite for assessing the invariant structure is to first stipulate and test a baseline model for each group individually .
such a model , which does not include cross- group constrains , should fit the data well in terms of both parsimony and theoretical relevance ( 27 ) . from the analyses in stage 1 , among the two measurement models evaluated , overall fit indexes revealed the multidimensional amas model to be the best fitting model available ( model b ) .
hence , on this basis , the multidimensional amas model consisting of two factors was tested on both groups to see if this measurement model was invariant across gender ( see table 4 ) . 
 
results of multi group confirmatory factor analyses across gender for females , the two - factor model had goodness - of - fit indexes as follows :  ( df=25 , n=165)=41.60 , p<.02 , cfi=.96 , rmsea=.06 , ifi=.95 . for males , the two - factor model was associated with similar goodness - of - fit indexes :  ( df=25 , n=133)=48.88 , p<.003 , cfi=.94 , rmsea=.08 , ifi=.94 . the unconstrained model ( configural model ) , where factor loadings are allowed to vary between females and males , provided a good fit (  [ df=48 ] = 87.70 , cfi=.95 , rmsea=.05 ) .
finally , equality constraints were imposed on factor loadings , variances and covariances . although chi - square difference tests indicated that constraining regression weights and factor variances and covariances are equal across sexes and led to statistically significant increases of the chi - square value , the fit of the model remained virtually unchanged in terms of the other fit .
nonetheless , the results in table 3 indicate a satisfactory fit for each subgroup and for each of the constraints in the multi - group analysis .
descriptive statistics for amas items and correlations between each item and their own subscales and between each item and the total scale are illustrated in table 1 .
almost all correlations between individual items and the total scale ranged from .41 to .66 .
correlations between individual items and their respective subscales ranged from .42 to .61 for learning mathematics anxiety , from .54 to .66 for mathematics evaluation anxiety . 
 
scores obtained from the nine - item amas had a cronbach 's alpha of .82 .
the internal consistency estimates of the two factors were as follows : learning mathematics anxiety ( five items ; =.75 ) , and mathematics evaluation anxiety ( four items ; =.79 ) .
we used smot and sam to provide estimates of convergent validity for the amas scores .
we expected that the scores on the nine - item amas , factor 1- learning mathematics anxiety and factor 2-mathematics evaluation anxiety , would be negatively correlated with scores from subscale of smot .
we expected the construct of amas to be more closely aligned with subscales of statistics anxiety measure ; hence , we expected larger correlations between amas scores and subscales of sam scores than between amas scores and smot scores
. as predicted , scores obtained from fearful behavior factor ( r=.58 ) , attitude factor ( r=.55 ) expectations factor ( r=.59 ) , and history and self - concept ( r=.48 ) were positively correlated with scores from amas total .
likewise , obtained scores from smot total ( r=.40 ) , interest ( r=.37 ) , relevance ( r=.22 ) satisfaction ( r=.25 ) and perceived probability of success ( r=.46 ) were also negatively correlated with obtained scores from amas as expected ( see table 2 ) .
in order to examine possible between - group differences in responses to the amas , we ran a one - way analysis of variance ( anova ) with the subscales of amas ( learning mathematics anxiety , mathematics evaluation anxiety ) as the dependent variable and participants sex as independent variable . results showed participants sex was significantly related to mathematics evaluation anxiety , f ( 1 , 296)=14.51 , p<.001 ) such that female students had lower scores ( m=5.21 , sd=3.59 ) than male students ( m=6.98 , sd=4.44 ) .
however , participants sex was not significantly related to learning mathematics anxiety f ( 1 , 296)=.574 , p>.05 . in other words , male students reported more mathematics evaluation anxiety than female students did .
to evaluate the goodness - of - fit of three alternative measurement models for the amas , cfa was first run for a one - factor solution in which all 9 items loaded on to a single general strengths factor ( model a ) and subsequently , it was run for the two - factor model ( b ) suggested by hopko et al .
in all the analyses the chi - square goodness of fit statistic is large and significant beyond the 0.001 level , rather than being small and associated with a high probability , which would indicate a close fit between model and data . however , this statistic is sensitive to sample size and does not provide a realistic test of the fit of models ( 27 ) . 
  confirmatory factor analysis showing the two - factor structure of the amas among undergraduate students goodness - of - fit statistics and their comparisons for three alternative measurement models for the 9-item amas note : model 1=one factor ; model b = two factor split half ; model c = final hypothesized two - factor model the results of the initial estimation of the one factor model did not provide a satisfactory result with a chi - square value of 153.237 ( df=26 ) , which was significant at the p<.001 level .
other fit indices revealed a moderate fit ( rmsea=.13 ; tli=.78 ; cfi=.84 ; ifi=.84 ) .
the two - factor model ( model b ) where the items are split into two sets to form the factors fits the data no better than the one - factor ( =78.895 ; p=.001 ; rmsea=.08 ; tli=.91 ; cfi=.93 ; ifi=.93 ) . according to the suggestions of modification indices ,
covariances were set on the error variances of items 5 and 8 in the internality model based on the reason that items were loaded on one unique factor : mathematics evaluation anxiety .
these modifications improved the fit ( =60.793 ; p=.001 ; rmsea=.04 ; tli=.94 ; cfi=.95 ; ifi=.95 ) for the two - factor model , the correlation between the factors is 0.67 .
thus , although the two factors were interrelated , the overlap between them was only about 45% , indicating that these need be conceptualized as distinct factors .
we also compared directly the one and two factor models with the  and aic ( akaike information criterion ) statistics .
both statistics directly compare the fit of the two models after adjusting for differences in the degrees of freedom . in every case
the  was significant at .001 and the aic was greater than 25 ( conventionally aic>15 is considered very significant ) .
these results again strongly support the superiority of the two - factor model over the one factor and two - factor split half models ; subsequently , this model was considered optimal .
in order to find out whether the model was invariant across gender , a multi - group analysis was conducted .
first , the two - factor model was tested separately for the male and female students . a prerequisite for assessing the invariant structure is to first stipulate and test a baseline model for each group individually .
such a model , which does not include cross- group constrains , should fit the data well in terms of both parsimony and theoretical relevance ( 27 ) . from the analyses in stage 1 , among the two measurement models evaluated
, overall fit indexes revealed the multidimensional amas model to be the best fitting model available ( model b ) .
hence , on this basis , the multidimensional amas model consisting of two factors was tested on both groups to see if this measurement model was invariant across gender ( see table 4 ) . 
 
results of multi group confirmatory factor analyses across gender for females , the two - factor model had goodness - of - fit indexes as follows :  ( df=25 , n=165)=41.60 , p<.02 , cfi=.96 , rmsea=.06 , ifi=.95 . for males ,
the two - factor model was associated with similar goodness - of - fit indexes :  ( df=25 , n=133)=48.88 , p<.003 , cfi=.94 , rmsea=.08 , ifi=.94 . the unconstrained model ( configural model ) , where factor loadings are allowed to vary between females and males , provided a good fit (  [ df=48 ] = 87.70 , cfi=.95 , rmsea=.05 ) . finally , equality constraints were imposed on factor loadings , variances and covariances . although chi - square difference tests indicated that constraining regression weights and factor variances and covariances are equal across sexes and led to statistically significant increases of the chi - square value , the fit of the model remained virtually unchanged in terms of the other fit . nonetheless , the results in table 3 indicate a satisfactory fit for each subgroup and for each of the constraints in the multi - group analysis .
the primary purpose of this study was to use confirmatory factor analytic techniques in a sample of young adult college students to explore the fit of the two - factor model of the amas proposed by hopko , mahadevan , bare and hunt .
the second aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an iranian version of the amas and to test measurement invariance across sex .
results showed that the amas has high internal consistency , with cronbach 's reaching 0.82 .
these data are further supported by the parameter estimates of the cfas , and is generally consistent with previous work showing that amas has high internal consistency ( 19 ) .
the correlational analysis supported the construct validity of the instrument , showing negative association among the amas and students motivation - to - learn - mathematics .
however , there was a high positive correlation between the math anxiety and statistics anxiety .
these results are in accordance with those found by previous works ( 30 , 31 , 32 and 33 ) and they indicate that statistics anxiety is related to test anxiety , math anxiety , and an individual 's history of success and failure experiences in situations involving math .
the present study showed that there was a difference between girls and boys with respect to mathematics evaluation anxiety and not in learning mathematics anxiety .
more specifically , boys reported higher mathematics evaluation anxiety than girls . whether this finding represents an actual gender difference or is more a function of increased willingness of female students to endorse anxiety symptoms
, data suggest that female students are more apt to avoid mathematics courses and careers that require math skills ( 3 ) .
this finding is consistent with that of pajares and miller ( 34 ) , pajares and kranzler ( 35 ) , shokrani ( 36 ) and kabiri ( 37 ) who reported a higher math anxiety for boys .
nonetheless , it differs from the findings of pajares and graham ( 38 ) . in this
regard , betz suggests that the differences in math attitudes between the sexes are the consequence of socialization .
female students may believe to be poor in mathematics and scientific domains ( 13 ) .
female students who perform poorly may justify their performance as a lack of ability rather than lack of hard work in math .
in contrast , male students often may excuse their poor performance in mathematics as lack of hard work ( 14 ) .
moreover , like hopko , mahadevan , bare and hunt ( 19 ) , the results of our cfa indicate that the most parsimonious best fit to the latent structure of the 9-item amas is a two - factor solution assessing learning mathematics anxiety and mathematics evaluation anxiety .
although the two dimensional structure of the amas was invariant across sex , one should be cautious about drawing significant conclusions of such a finding ; and further research is required .
future work should also seek to examine the construct validity of the amas , by examining the relationship of math anxiety with related constructs .
in particular , it may be useful to investigate the amas in relation to other scales that measure test anxiety that had been validated for use among persian - speaking students . in conclusion ,
the present results support the amas as a valid and reliable measure of math anxiety among college students within the iranian context .
 objectivethe aim of this study is to explore the confirmatory factor analysis results of the persian adaptation of abbreviated math anxiety scale ( amas ) , proposed by hopko , mahadevan , bare & hunt.methodthe validity and reliability assessments of the scale were performed on 298 college students chosen randomly from tabriz university in iran . 
 the confirmatory factor analysis ( cfa ) was carried out to determine the factor structures of the persian version of amas.resultsas expected , the two - factor solution provided a better fit to the data than a single factor . 
 moreover , multi - group analyses showed that this two - factor structure was invariant across sex . 
 hence , amas provides an equally valid measure for use among college students.conclusionsbrief amas demonstrates adequate reliability and validity . 
 the amas scores can be used to compare symptoms of math anxiety between male and female students . 
 the study both expands and adds support to the existing body of math anxiety literature . 
Materials and Method
Participants
Procedures
Assessment Measures
Data analysis
Results
Reliability Estimates
Convergent Validity
Between-Group Differences
Stage 1: assessing measurement models
Stage 2: testing gender invariance
Discussion