School grades in mathematics: the role of intelligence, family socioeconomic position, dyscalculia propensity and mathematics anxiety

Psychometric intelligence is associated with school grades including grades in mathematics. Low mathematics performance is also associated with low family socioeconomic status and scores on tools designed to measure specifical mathematics deficits such as dyscalculia screening tools and mathematics anxiety questionnaires. We used a sample of Hungarian schoolchildren (N = 102, mean age = 12.3 years) to directly compare the predictive power of dyscalculia, mathematics anxiety, and socioeconomic status for mathematics grades. Mathematics grades correlated with scores on the WISC-IV, the DPV dyscalculia screening tool, the MARS mathematics anxiety questionnaire, and a composite measure of family SES. The WISC-IV showcased a manifest correlation of 0.62 and a latent correlation of 0.78 with the DPV and high manifest (r=-0.53) and latent (r=-0.59) correlations with mathematics anxiety. WISC-IV IQ alone accounted for 52% of the variance in mathematics grades. WISC-IV IQ, DPV scores, family SES and mathematics anxiety jointly accounted for 56% of the variance in grades, with a non-significant contribution of DPV and family SES over IQ and a marginal contribution of mathematics anxiety. Our results show that psychometric intelligence is the most important predictor of mathematics grades, while family SES and scores on a dyscalculia screening tool are only associated with grades to the extent they reflect psychometric intelligence. The results, however, confirmed a small role of mathematics anxiety over intelligence in predicting grades.