Who is afraid of statistics? Correlates of statistics anxiety among students of educational sciences


Book: 
Educational Research
Authors: 
Birenbaum, M., & Eylath, S.
Category: 
Volume: 
36(1)
Pages: 
93-98
Year: 
1994
Abstract: 

The purpose of the present short report is to investigate the correlates of statistics anxiety. The sample consisted of 151 first- and second-year-level female students in the department of educational sciences enrolled in statistics-related courses. The findings indicated that a priori anxiety of statistics was not reduced by acquaintance with the subject, nor was students' willingness to further study of statistics affected by this experience. Furthermore, grades in statistics were neither related to statistics anxiety nor to willingness to pursue further study of statistics. Inductive reasoning ability was significantly related to statistics anxiety but not to mathematics anxiety.

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education

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