Statistics Anxiety in Flanders: Exploring Its Level, Antecedents, and Performance Impact Across Professional and Academic Bachelor Programs in Psychology

Jean-Philippe van Dijck; Elger Abrahamse; Steffi Kesteloot; Rebecca Willems; Wim Fias

Vol. 14 No. 3 (2022) Special Issue: Typical and Atypical Mathematics Learning: What do We Learn from Recent Studies?

Statistics Anxiety in Flanders: Exploring Its Level, Antecedents, and Performance Impact Across Professional and Academic Bachelor Programs in Psychology

Jean-Philippe van Dijck
Elger Abrahamse
Steffi Kesteloot
Rebecca Willems
Wim Fias

Published March 16, 2022 | Pages: 363-385 | Views: 614

Download PDF

SHARE

Abstract

The current study focusses on the prevalence of statistics anxiety and the motivation to learn statistics in Flanders (Belgium) and determined to what degree these factors and their interaction relates to statistical performance. For this purpose, the Statistics Anxiety Scale and the Statistics Motivation Scale were translated, validated, and administered in professional and academic bachelor students in psychology. The prevalence of SA in Flanders is comparable to other countries, with professional bachelor students being more anxious to make interpretations compared to academic bachelor students, who in turn are more anxious to ask for help. Academic students are more motivated to learn statistics compared the professional bachelor students, mostly in terms of intrinsic motivation. Unfortunately, the overall motivation to learn statistics declines throughout the semester. This is a pity, because we observed that as high levels of motivation can alleviate the negative impact of statistics anxiety on statistical performance, especially when controlling for general learning abilities.

<p>The current study focusses on the prevalence of statistics anxiety and the motivation to learn statistics in Flanders (Belgium) and determined to what degree these factors and their interaction relates to statistical performance. For this purpose, the Statistics Anxiety Scale and the Statistics Motivation Scale were translated, validated, and administered in professional and academic bachelor students in psychology. The prevalence of SA in Flanders is comparable to other countries, with professional bachelor students being more anxious to make interpretations compared to academic bachelor students, who in turn are more anxious to ask for help. Academic students are more motivated to learn statistics compared the professional bachelor students, mostly in terms of intrinsic motivation. Unfortunately, the overall motivation to learn statistics declines throughout the semester. This is a pity, because we observed that as high levels of motivation can alleviate the negative impact of statistics anxiety on statistical performance, especially when controlling for general learning abilities.</p>

Listen -

References

Abd Hamid, H. S., & Sulaiman, M. K. (2014). Statistics Anxiety and Achievement in a Statistics Course among Psychology Students. International Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 9(1), 55–66.
Baloğlu, M. (2002). Psychometric properties of the statistics anxiety rating scale. Psychological Reports, 90(1), 315–325. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.90.1.315-325
Baloğlu, M., Deniz, M. E., & Kesici, S. (2011). A descriptive study of individual and cross-cultural differences in statistics anxiety. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 387–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2011.03.003
Beaton, D. E., Bombardier, C., Guillemin, F., & Ferraz, M. B. (2000). Guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures. Spine, 25(24), 3186–3191. https://doi.org/10.1097/00007632-200012150-00014
Bell, J. A. (2008). Statistics anxiety and business statistics: the international student. Education, 129(2), 282–287.
Benson, J. (1989). Structural components of statistical test anxiety in adults: An exploratory model. Journal of Experimental Education, 57(3), 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1989.10806509
Birenbaum, M., & Eylath, S. (1994). Who is afraid of statistics? Correlates of statistics anxiety among students of educational sciences. Educational Research, 36(1), 93–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188940360110
Boaler, J., Dieckmann, J. A., Pérez-Núñez, G., Sun, K. L., & Williams, C. (2018). Changing Students Minds and Achievement in Mathematics: The Impact of a Free Online Student Course. Frontiers in Education, 3, 26. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2018.00026
Caine, R., Centa, D., Doroff, C., Horowitz, J. H., & Wisenbaker, V. (1978). Statistics from Whom? Teaching Sociology, 6(1), 37–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/1317164
Cantinotti, M., Lalande, D., Ferlatte, M. A., & Cousineau, D. (2017). Validation de la version francophone du Questionnaire d’anxiété statistique (SAS-F-24). Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 49(2), 133. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000074

Caviola, S., Primi, C., Chiesi, F., & Mammarella, I. C. (2017). Psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) in Italian primary school children. Learning and Individual Differences, 55, 174–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2017.03.006
Chew, P. K. H., & Dillon, D. B. (2014a). Reliability and validity of the Statistical Anxiety Scale among students in Singapore and Australia. Journal of Tropical Psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.1017/jtp.2014.7
Chew, P. K. H., & Dillon, D. B. (2014b). Statistics Anxiety Update: Refining the Construct and Recommendations for a New Research Agenda. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(2), 196–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613518077
Chiesi, F., Primi, C., & Carmona, J. (2011). Measuring statistics Anxiety: Cross-country validity of the statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS). Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29(6), 559–569. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282911404985
Cipora, K., Willmes, K., Szwarc, A., & Nuerk, H.-C. (2018). Norms and validation of the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) for Polish adolescents and adults. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 3(3), 667–693. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v3i3.121
Cruise, R. J., Cash, W. R., & Bolton, D. L. (1985). Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Statistical Anxiety. American Statistical Association Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education, 4(3), 92–97.
Cui, S., Zhang, J., Guan, D., Zhao, X., & Si, J. (2019). Antecedents of statistics anxiety: An integrated account. Personality and Individual Differences, 144, 79–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.02.036
DeVaney, T. A. (2010). Anxiety and attitude of graduate students in On-Campus vs. online statistics courses. Journal of Statistics Education, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2010.11889472
Dunn, K. (2014). Why Wait? The Influence of Academic Self-Regulation, Intrinsic Motivation, and Statistics Anxiety on Procrastination in Online Statistics. Innovative Higher Education, 39(1), 33–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-013-9256-1
Durak, İ., & Karagöz, Y. (2021). Adaptation of Statistics Anxiety Scale to Turkish: Validity and Reliability Study. International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education, 8(3), 667–683. https://doi.org/10.21449/ijate.863225
Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., & Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7(2), 336–353. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336
Field, A. P. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics: 5th edition. In SAGE Publications, Inc.
Fonteyne, L., de Fruyt, F., Dewulf, N., Duyck, W., Erauw, K., Goeminne, K., Lammertyn, J., Marchant, T., Moerkerke, B., Oosterlinck, T., & Rosseel, Y. (2015). Basic mathematics test predicts statistics achievement and overall first year academic success. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 30(1), 95–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-014-0230-9
Hernandez, J. A. E., Santos, G. R. dos, Silva, J. de O. da, Mendes, S. L. L., & Ramos, V. da C. B. (2015). Evidências de Validade da Escala de Ansiedade em Estatística em Alunos da Psicologia. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 35(3), 659–675. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-3703000362014
Hopko, D. R., Mahadevan, R., Bare, R. L., & Hunt, M. K. (2003). The Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS): Construction, validity, and reliability. Assessment, 10(2), 178–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191103010002008
Kaiser, H. F., & Rice, J. (1974). Little jiffy, mark IV. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 34(1), 111–117.
Kesici, S., Baloğlu, M., & Deniz, M. E. (2011). Self-regulated learning strategies in relation with statistics anxiety. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 472–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2011.02.006
Lesser, L. M., & Reyes III, R. (2015). Student Reactions to the Integration of Fun Material in a High-Anxiety Subject: A Case Study in the Teaching of College Introductory Statistics. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 8(1).
Lester, D. (2016). Predicting success in psychological statistics courses. Psychological Reports, 118(3), 772–777. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294116647687
Liu, S., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Meng, L. (2011). Examination of the score reliability and validity of the statistics anxiety rating scale in a chinese population: Comparisons of statistics anxiety between chinese college students and their western counterparts. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 11(1).

Love, J., Selker, R., Marsman, M., Jamil, T., Dropmann, D., Verhagen, J., Ly, A., Gronau, Q. F., Šmíra, M., Epskamp, S., Matzke, D., Wild, A., Knight, P., Rouder, J. N., Morey, R. D., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2019). JASP: Graphical statistical software for common statistical designs. Journal of Statistical Software, 88(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v088.i02
Macher, D., Paechter, M., Papousek, I., & Ruggeri, K. (2012). Statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, learning behavior, and academic performance. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 27(4), 483–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-011-0090-5
Macher, D., Paechter, M., Papousek, I., Ruggeri, K., Freudenthaler, H. H., & Arendasy, M. (2013). Statistics anxiety, state anxiety during an examination, and academic achievement. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(4), 535–549. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2012.02081.x
Macher, D., Papousek, I., Ruggeri, K., & Paechter, M. (2015). Statistics anxiety and performance: Blessings in disguise. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1116. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01116
McGrath, A. L. (2014). Content, Affective, and Behavioral Challenges to Learning: Students’ Experiences Learning Statistics. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2014.080206
Mitton, P. A. D. (1987). Locus of control, gender and type of major as correlates to statistics anxiety in college students. In [Doctoral dissertation, American University, Washington, D.C.]. American University Digital Research Archive.
Najmi, A., Raza, S. A., & Qazi, W. (2018). Does statistics anxiety affect students’ performance in higher education? The role of students’ commitment, self-concept and adaptability. International Journal of Management in Education, 12(2), 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMIE.2018.090705
Neumann, D. L., Hood, M., & Neumann, M. M. (2013). Using real-life data when teaching statistics: Student perceptions of this strategy in an introductory statistics course. Statistics Education Research Journal, 12(2), 59–70. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v12i2.304
Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Academic procrastination and statistics anxiety. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 29(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0260293042000160384
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., da Ros, D., & Ryan, J. M. (1997). The Components of Statistics Anxiety: A Phenomenological Study., Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics. Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics, 19(4), 11–35.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Wilson, V. A. (2003). Statistics Anxiety: Nature, etiology, antecedents, effects, and treatments--a comprehensive review of the literature. Teaching in Higher Education, 8(2), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251032000052447
Paechter, M., Macher, D., Martskvishvili, K., Wimmer, S., & Papousek, I. (2017). Mathematics Anxiety and statistics anxiety. Shared but also unshared components and antagonistic contributions to performance in statistics. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1196. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01196
Papousek, I., Ruggeri, K., MacHer, D., Paechter, M., Heene, M., Weiss, E. M., Schulter, G., & Freudenthaler, H. H. (2012). Psychometric evaluation and experimental validation of the statistics anxiety rating scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(1), 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2011.627959
Rodarte-Luna, B., & Sherry, A. (2008). Sex differences in the relation between statistics anxiety and cognitive/learning strategies. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33(2), 327–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2007.03.002
Schau, C. (2003). Students’ Attitudes: the “Other” Important Outcome in Statistics Education. Meetings, Joint Statistical Education, Statistical, 3673–3681.
Scherer, R. F., Luther, D. C., Wiebe, F. A., & Adams, J. S. (1988). Dimensionality of coping: Factor stability using the ways of coping questionnaire. Psychological Reports, 62(3), 763–770. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1988.62.3.763
Smith, T. F., & Capuzzi, G. (2019). Using a Mindset Intervention to Reduce Anxiety in the Statistics Classroom. Psychology Learning and Teaching, 18(3), 326–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725719836641
Staribratov, I., & Babakova, L. (2019). Development and validation of a math-specific version of the academic motivation scale (AMS-Mathematics) Among First-year university students in Bulgaria. TEM Journal, 8(2), 317. https://doi.org/10.18421/TEM82-01

Tonsing, K. N. (2018). Instructor immediacy and statistics anxiety in social work undergraduate students. Social Work Education, 37(2), 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2017.1395009
Vahedi, S., Farrokhi, F., Farahnaz, G., & Ali, I. (2012). The relationship between procrastination, learning strategies and statistics anxiety among Iranian college students: A canonical correlation analysis. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 6(1), 40–46.
Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., Blais, M. R., Briere, N. M., Senecal, C., & Vallieres, E. F. (1992). The academic motivation scale: A measure of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52(4), 1003–1017. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052004025
Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., Blais, M. R., Briere, N. M., Senecal, C., & Vallieres, E. F. (1993). On the assessment of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education: Evidence on the concurrent and construct validity of the academic motivation scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53(1), 159–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164493053001018
Vigil-Colet, A., Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Condon, L. (2008). Development and validation of the Statistical Anxiety Scale. Psicothema, 20(1), 174–180.
Walsh, J. J., & Ugumba-Agwunobi, G. (2002). Individual differences in statistics anxiety: The roles of perfectionism, procrastination and trait anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 33(2), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00148-9
Williams, A. S. (2010). Statistics anxiety and instructor immediacy. Journal of Statistics Education, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2010.11889495
Williams, A. S. (2013). Worry, intolerance of uncertainty, and statistics anxiety. Statistics Education Research Journal, 12(1), 48–59. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v12i1.321
Zare, H., Rastegar, A., & Hosseini, S. M. D. (2011). The relation among achievement goals and academic achievement in statistics: the mediating role of statistics anxiety and statistics self-efficacy. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 1166–1172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.227
Zeidner, M. (1991). Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students: Some interesting parallels. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 61(3), 319–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1991.tb00989.x

Keywords

statistics anxiety, motivation, prevalence, Flanders, statistical performance

Affiliations

Jean-Philippe van Dijck

Thomas More, University of Applied Sciences, Department of Applied Psychology, Belgium

Elger Abrahamse

Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands

Steffi Kesteloot

Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Rebecca Willems

Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Wim Fias

Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

How to Cite

van Dijck, J.-P., Abrahamse, E., Kesteloot, S., Willems, R., & Fias, W. (2022). Statistics Anxiety in Flanders: Exploring Its Level, Antecedents, and Performance Impact Across Professional and Academic Bachelor Programs in Psychology. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 14(3), 363–385. Retrieved from https://iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/1745

Author Biography

Jean-Philippe van Dijck

Lecturer & reseracher at Thomas More, University of Applied Sciences, Department of Applied Psychology, Belgium

Post-doc at Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Elger Abrahamse

Assistent professor at Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands

Assistent professor at Department of Educational Sciences, Atlántico Medio University, Spain

Steffi Kesteloot

Master thesis student at Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Rebecca Willems

Internship student at Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Wim Fias

Professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium