Mathematics Anxiety and Statistics Anxiety. Shared but Also Unshared Components and Antagonistic Contributions to Performance in Statistics

Abstract

In many social science majors, e.g., psychology, students report high levels of statistics anxiety. However, these majors are often chosen by students who are less prone to mathematics and who might have experienced difficulties and unpleasant feelings in their mathematics courses at school. The present study investigates whether statistics anxiety is a genuine form of anxiety that impairs students' achievements or whether learners mainly transfer previous experiences in mathematics and their anxiety in mathematics to statistics. The relationship between mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety, their relationship to learning behaviors and to performance in a statistics examination were investigated in a sample of 225 undergraduate psychology students (164 women, 61 men). Data were recorded at three points in time: At the beginning of term students' mathematics anxiety, general proneness to anxiety, school grades, and demographic data were assessed; 2 weeks before the end of term, they completed questionnaires on statistics anxiety and their learning behaviors. At the end of term, examination scores were recorded. Mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety correlated highly but the comparison of different structural equation models showed that they had genuine and even antagonistic contributions to learning behaviors and performance in the examination. Surprisingly, mathematics anxiety was positively related to performance. It might be that students realized over the course of their first term that knowledge and skills in higher secondary education mathematics are not sufficient to be successful in statistics. Part of mathematics anxiety may then have strengthened positive extrinsic effort motivation by the intention to avoid failure and may have led to higher effort for the exam preparation. However, via statistics anxiety mathematics anxiety also had a negative contribution to performance. Statistics anxiety led to higher procrastination in the structural equation model and, therefore, contributed indirectly and negatively to performance. Furthermore, it had a direct negative impact on performance (probably via increased tension and worry in the exam). The results of the study speak for shared but also unique components of statistics anxiety and mathematics anxiety. They are also important for instruction and give recommendations to learners as well as to instructors.

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

“…In support of this model, some researchers have reported that, as statistics anxiety increases, statistics performance decreases, illustrating a direct relationship between statistics anxiety and performance (Griffith et al, 2014). Although the results of this research support a direct negative effect of anxiety, according to Paechter, Macher, Martskvishvili, Wimmer, and Papousek (2017), "various studies have found no or only low, nonsignificant correlations between statistics anxiety and academic performance" (p. 2.…”

Goal Orientations and Activation of Approach Versus Avoidance Motivation While Awaiting an Achievement Situation in the Laboratory

“…Whether a performance-avoidance tendency leads to an approach motivation also depends on the expectancy of success in case of the intended behavior alternative (Macher et al, 2013; Paechter et al, 2017). Altogether, the results suggest that performance-avoidance goals do not solely focus on avoiding challenges.…”

Introducing the Teaching Quantitative Methods Vignettes (TQMV)

“…This is not a secret that courses in quantitative methods are not popular among students in psychology, education, sociology and social sciences more generally (Cui, Zhang, Guan, Zhao, & Si, 2019). Many have experienced difficulties and unpleasant feelings in their mathematics courses (Paechter, Macher, Martskvishvili, Wimmer, & Papousek, 2017). We also know that quantitative methods courses generate more anxiety than other courses (Baloglu, 2003).…”