Aim: This study compared academic motivation, mathematics anxiety, and anxiety symptoms among students with and without experiences of
Methods: The research method was causal-comparative. The statistical population consisted of all fifth and sixth-grade elementary school students in Malayer city during the 2023-2024 academic year. The sample included 390 students (68 with experience of familial child abuse and 322 without such experience), selected using multi-stage cluster sampling and Z-scores. Data were collected using the Iranian Child Abuse Questionnaire, the Elementary Student Academic Motivation Scale, the Short Math Anxiety Scale, and the Child Anxiety Screening Questionnaire related to emotional disorders, and were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA).
Results: The findings indicated that students with experience of familial child abuse had lower academic motivation and higher math anxiety and anxiety symptoms (somatic symptoms and panic, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, and school avoidance) compared to their peers without such experience (p < .01).
Conclusion: The results showed that the consequences of familial child abuse are not limited to psychological vulnerability and also affect children's academic motivation, math anxiety, and symptoms of anxiety disorders. Therefore, timely identification of children at risk of child abuse, empowering parents, teachers, and school counselors, and developing educational and supportive programs can help improve children's mental health, learning quality, and academic success.