ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
How does digital learning resource accessibility affects math learning anxiety in high school --- An empirical analysis based on PISA 2022
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
- 2Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- 3Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
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As math learning anxiety remains a persistent barrier to student achievement and well-being, it is crucial to understand how digital learning environments can alleviate or intensify this issue. This study investigates the relationship between accessibility to digital learning resources and students' math learning anxiety in high school settings, drawing on large-scale data from the PISA 2022 survey. Specifically, it examines how the quality, usage frequency, and manner of use of digital resources influence students' anxiety, and how these relationships are moderated by teacher support and sense of school belonging. Linear regression analyses reveal that both the quality of digital learning resources and their manner of use significantly associated with reduced math learning anxiety, whereas usage frequency shows no significant effect. Further moderation analysis indicates that teacher support consistently mitigates the impact of all three dimensions of digital resource accessibility on math learning anxiety. In contrast, the sense of school belonging moderates only the effects of quality and manner of use, but not usage frequency. These findings underscore the importance of not just increasing access to digital resources, but also ensuring their quality, fostering supportive teacher-student interactions, and cultivating students' sense of belonging within the school environment. Channeling budgets and teacher-training toward high-quality, interactive digital resources demonstrably lessens students' math-learning anxiety and narrows the digital divide. Channeling budgets and teacher-training toward high-quality, interactive digital resources demonstrably lessens students' math-learning anxiety and narrows the digital divide. Limitations include the cross-sectional design and self-reported data, which limit causality and may inflate effects; future longitudinal or experimental studies should test these patterns across contexts.
Keywords: math learning anxiety, Digital learning resources, quality, teacher support, senseof school belonging
Received: 14 Jun 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Yang, Cui, Ming and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haoran Cui, cuihaoran0527@163.com
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