Maths anxiety, using numbers and data in daily life - and wellbeing
There is a long list of things that parents struggled with in lockdown, including trying to work while supporting their children’s learning as best they could. As Jenny Anderson argues here, the subject that likely caused the most angst for both parents and children was maths.
Research has shown that parental ‘maths anxiety’ can undermine children’s maths achievement[1] but there is a gap in research on the relationship between number confidence - and competence - among adults and wellbeing. Low confidence with numbers affects a significant minority of the population: in a 2019 Ipsos-Mori poll conducted by National Numeracy, 29% of women described themselves as maths anxious, 1/3 of all those surveyed said that they are not a ‘numbers person’ and ¼ said that they would be deterred from applying for a job if it listed using numbers and data as a requirement.
This gap in research between number confidence and wellbeing is concerning for two reasons:
1. Although we certainly don’t need most of the maths we learnt at school in daily life, numbers and data are all around us, so we all need to be ‘numbers people’. All jobs at least require the confidence with numbers to check a pay slip – and engaging with the numbers underpinning household finances, particularly through an economic shock, is a pretty essential life skill too.
2. This lack of confidence is justified; overall adults in the UK are almost unbelievably bad at tasks that test their number skills – with the use of a calculator or phone – see Appendix 1. Additionally, many (primarily men!) are overconfident; over a third of those who rated their skills as good were within the half of adults who were at the level that we that expect of a primary school child[2].
A basic understanding of numbers and data is necessary to enable us all to make informed choices at work and at home – and one would assume that having the capacity to make informed choices is necessary (but not sufficient) for the personal factors that contribute to wellbeing. Yet a range of data suggests that this necessary condition is not in place for around ½ of the adult population.
There is a stark contrast between policy makers’ and regulators perception of the (current) capacity of adults to understand numbers or data, and the reality. In recent years, I have become increasingly aware that this contrast has led to policies and practices across a wide range of domains – including financial wellbeing, public health, tax, pensions, employment & skills and mental health - that are built upon (current) capacity assumptions that are often false and that are therefore unlikely to work.
I have bracketed ‘current’ above because there is no evidence to suggest that the inability to correctly answer the questions below is in any way genetic or fixed. Just as with the right support almost all of us have the capacity to manage our weight, we all have the capacity to be confident with numbers – but for both, our lived environment has changed significantly in the last couple of decades. Unlike weight and physical health, there is a gap in research on the impact on wellbeing of the widespread anxiety caused by a lack of confidence with numbers – and crucially what we can do about this. I am keen to work with the Centre and others to fill this gap.
Appendix
To check your own perception of this issue, please have a look at the following questions and then estimate the percentage of a representative sample of the UK adult population who managed to get the 5 questions right (answer in endnote[i]):
[1] See https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/afps-pma081015.php for example
[2] https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/sites/default/files/national_numeracy_day_2019.pdf
[i] 6% answered all 5 questions correctly.
(4/5 = 14%, 3/5 = 24%, 2/5 = 27%, 1/5 = 19%, 0/5 = 10%). This is broadly in line with the latest government -commissioned data on adult skills levels and also data on over 300,000 adults who have engaged with the National Numeracy Challenge.