The Influence of Anxiety and Self-Efficacy on Statistics Performance: A Path Analysis

Abstract

ABOUT PSI CHI Psi Chi is the International Honor So ci ety in Psychology, found ed in 1929. Its mission: "recognizing and promoting excellence in the science and application of psy chol ogy." Mem ber ship is open to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and alumni mak ing the study of psy chol ogy one of their major interests and who meet Psi Chi's min i mum qual i fi ca tions. Psi Chi is a member of the As so cia tion of Col lege Honor So ci et ies (ACHS), and is an affiliate of the Ameri can Psy cho logi cal As so cia tion (APA) and the Association for Psy cho log i cal Science (APS). Psi Chi's sister honor society is Psi Beta, the na tion al honor society in psychology for com mu nity and junior colleges. Psi Chi functions as a federation of chap ters located at over 1,150 senior col leg es and universities around the world. The Psi Chi Central Office is lo cat ed in Chatta nooga, Ten nessee. A Board of Directors, com posed of psy chol o gy faculty who are Psi Chi members and who are elect ed by the chapters, guides the affairs of the Or ga ni za tion and sets pol i cy with the ap prov al of the chap ters. Psi Chi membership provides two major opportunities. The first of these is ac a dem ic rec og ni tion to all in duc tees by the mere fact of mem ber ship. The sec ond is the opportunity of each of the Society's local chapters to nourish and stim u late the pro fes sion al growth of all members through fellowship and activities de signed to augment and en hance the reg u lar cur ric u lum. In addition, the Or ga ni za tion provides programs to help achieve these goals including con ven tions, research awards and grants competitions, and publication opportunities. JOURNAL PURPOSE STATEMENT The twofold purpose of the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research is to foster and reward the scholarly efforts of Psi Chi members, whether students or faculty, as well as to provide them with a valuable learning experience. The articles pub lished in the Journal represent the work of under graduates, graduate students, and faculty; the Journal is dedicated to increas ing its scope and relevance by accepting and involving diverse people of varied racial, ethnic, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious, and social class backgrounds, among many others. To further support authors and enhance Journal visibility, articles are now available in the PsycINFO ® , EBSCO ® , Crossref ® , and Google Scholar databases. In 2016, the Journal also became open access (i.e., free online to all readers and authors) to broad en the dissemination of research across the psychological science community.

Mediating factors of statistics anxiety in university students: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Results are presented in detail in the Supplementary Materials. 15,31,48 In general, these results barely present any difference with those obtained from considering only SA. In all cases, correlation scores are in the same direction, and of very similar effect size, which could suggest equivalence of these scales, at least in these specific samples.…”

“…It seems that the way in which university students perceive their ability for statistics can tended to present an inverse relationship with SA in our analyses. 9,31,52,53 Further insights from our meta-analysis attest to this trend, showing that across studies, the higher a student's reported assuredness in their capacity for statistics (self-efficacy), the lower their presentations of SA. This, perhaps, indicates a prospect for statistics instructors to employ teaching strategies and encourage learning behaviours which aim to increase self-efficacy among students to reduce SA.…”

“…For instance, while Paechter and colleagues found SA led to a direct negative effect on statistical performance, a small, direct positive relationship was found in the study of Macher and colleagues, while in Hoegler and Nelson's findings, SA had an indirect impact on academic performance. 15,31,32 In other studies, no significant correlations between SA and performance were uncovered. However, it was found that statistics-related psychological flexibility, attitude and previous math experiences could act to mediate performance in statistics.…”

“…In all studies, relationships were found between SA and self-efficacy, or indeed, student's perceptions of their capabilities in statistics. 9,31,[51][52][53] In the research of Cendales and colleagues, higher scores in self-concept, self-perception and attitudes were related to increased SA levels, particularly in women, in both the STEM and Human Sciences areas. 51 Furthermore,…”

Improving Quantitative Abilities and Attitudes in Clinical Psychology Courses: Longitudinal Assessment of a Blended Learning Intervention

“…Statistics anxiety, which is characterized by negative affective responses to encounters with quantitative content and analysis, is negatively associated with statistics achievement (Chew & Dillon, 2014;Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003). Among undergraduate psychology students, statistics anxiety is significantly associated with lower performance on final examinations, even after controlling for prior GPA (Hoegler & Nelson, 2018). Importantly, there is evidence that statistics anxiety is higher among students from underrepresented groups.…”