(Mal)adaptive Cognitions as Predictors of Statistics Anxiety

Abstract

A vast majority of social science students experience statistics anxiety in their statistics class, a course often perceived as the most difficult one of their academic paths. The present study examines the role of attitudes towards statistics, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and satisfaction of psychological needs in the prediction of statistics anxiety as well as the contribution of gender onto statistics anxiety. Two hundred forty-two undergraduate social sciences students in Canada completed the study. Positive attitude towards statistics, fewer maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and satisfaction of psychological needs were related to less statistics anxiety; adaptive emotion regulation strategies, however, were not. Furthermore, women experienced more statistics anxiety than men. Results provide insight about individual differences that may impact experiences of statistics anxiety and overall learning in the context of a statistics course.

The correlates of statistics anxiety: Relationships with spatial anxiety, mathematics anxiety and gender

“…Many universities were solicited to reach at least 500 participants. This number was chosen a priori (gauging the effect sizes we previously obtained in related studies, e.g., Cantinotti et al, 2017;Lalande et al, 2019, andMcIntee et al, 2022, and informally assuming that the added measures would not be as strong). After the experiment was completed, we ran a power analysis.…”

“…However, the investigation of gender does not provide consistent effects across studies. Some researchers observe a difference between men and women, where women report higher statistics anxiety (e.g., Lalande et al, 2019;McIntee et al, 2022), and others conclude that there is no such difference (e.g., Baloğlu et al, 2011;Bui & Alfaro, 2011;Hsiao & Chiang, 2011;Mandap, 2016;DeMaria Mitton, 1987). The effect of statistics anxiety on performance may especially be detrimental to women as they often (but not always) report higher levels of a variety of anxieties (Casey et al, 1995;Casey et al, 1997;Eduljee & LeBourdais, 2015;Lawton, 1994).…”

“…This would limit success in mathematics and generate mathematics anxiety (observed as early as approximately 9-10 years old; Harari et al, 2013;Luttenberger et al, 2018). This lack of success set maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (McIntee et al, 2022) mostly attached to anything deemed "mathematics". The literature would benefit from future research emphasizing on longitudinal studies examining this conjectural trajectory on a 15-year span (from 6 years old to college or university where the first statistics classes occur).…”