Mathematical skills are essential to master everyday activities properly, make everyone aware of his/her personal and professional choices and effectively exercise citizenship in a numerate society. For these reasons, it is fundamental to study and describe the factors that can promote or hinder the learning process at the base of this discipline. Literature on the topic has extensively investigated the cognitive abilities that prompt math learning (e.g., intelligence, memory, processing speed) and, more recently, researchers have explored the contribution of the emotional factors (e.g., general or specific anxiety) on math performance. In this paper we will present an update review of the effects of math anxiety on math learning and present a bio-psycho-social model that could help to better understand the possible etiology of this condition. This developmental and dynamic approach seem to be the most suitable for studying and treating math anxiety.
