Citation
Bui, N.H., & Alfaro, M.A. (2011). Statistics anxiety and science attitudes: Age, gender, and ethnicity factors. College Student Journal, 45(3), 573-585.
Highlights
- The study examined relationships between statistics anxiety and attitudes about science in an introductory psychology statistics course in a small private Western university.
- Authors administered a demographic questionnaire (10 items), the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS; 51 items), and the Test of Science-Related Attitudes measure (TOSRA; 70 items). They also ran t-tests and analyses of variance to assess differences across gender or ethnic groups and used Pearson’s correlation to examine relationships between statistics anxiety scales and science attitudes.
- The study found that younger students (ages 18 to 24 versus those 25 and older) had more negative attitudes about the social implications and enjoyment of science; there were no differences across gender or ethnic groups in the STARS or TOSRA measures. Six of seven scales of the TOSRA were negatively correlated with at least one STARS scale, suggesting that more positive science attitudes are associated with lower statistics anxiety.
Reviewed by CLEAR
February 2016