Anxiety towards Mathematics of Workers in the Production Area of a Sugar Mill in Veracruz, Mexico

The aim of the study was to measure the level of anxiety towards mathematics among workers in the production area of a factory in the sugar industry. In order to carry out this study, the Muñoz y Mato-Vázquez scale was used (2007) and adapted to the working area. 283 workers from the three different shifts (morning, afternoon and night) were surveyed. For the data analysis and the Exploratory Factorial Analysis technique was used. The reliability of the instrument was acceptable (α = .804 and .945), according to Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black (1991). The results suggest that the worker experiences anxiety during the evaluation process that they perform as part of the procedures in the production area where math calculations are constantly being used, meaning that the working environment causes anxiety toward math. This is related to the insecurity they feel, mainly due to the level of knowledge they have in mathematics, derived from their schooling level.