The aim of this study is to examine possible sources of negative math attitudes as well as some possible effects. The main body of this dissertation are three stand-alone chapters that are designed to be stand-alone academic article. Chapter 2 uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) and lagged-dependent variable and school fixed effects regressions to identify that girls are more likely to have a negative response to a B, C, or D in a math course compared to boys. Chapter 3 uses a series of logistic regressions and data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, and finds that the negative average math attitudes among prospective teachers is merely a byproduct of the gender composition of the field. Chapter 4 uses survey and U.S. classroom observation data from the Elementary Mathematics Study (EMS) and OLS regression to analyze the relationship between mathematics anxiety and time on math; this research provides evidence that math anxious elementary teachers spend less time on math instruction.