Statistics Anxiety in Flanders: Exploring Its Level, Antecedents, and Performance Impact Across Professional and Academic Bachelor Programs in Psychology

Abstract

The current study focusses on the level of statistics anxiety and the motivation to learn statistics in Flanders (Belgium) and determined to what degree these factors and their interaction relates to statistical performance. For this purpose, the Statistics Anxiety Scale and the Statistics Motivation Scale were translated, validated, and administered in professional and academic bachelor students in psychology. The level of SA in Flanders is comparable to other countries, with professional bachelor students being more anxious to make interpretations compared to academic bachelor students, who in turn are more anxious to ask for help. Academic students are more motivated to learn statistics compared the professional bachelor students, mostly in terms of intrinsic motivation. The overall motivation to learn statistics is lower at the end of the semester compared to the beginning of the semester. This is unfortunate, because we observed that high levels of motivation can alleviate the negative impact of statistics anxiety on statistical performance, especially when controlling for general learning abilities.