Factors influencing the behavioural intention to use statistical software: The perspective of the Slovenian students of social sciences

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to investigate the main factors influencing the adoption and continuous utilization of statistical software among university social sciences students in Slovenia. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a conceptual model was derived where five external variables were taken into account: statistical software self-efficacy, computer attitude, statistics anxiety, statistics learning self-efficacy, and statistics learning value. The model was applied to the purposive sample of 387 university social sciences students in Slovenia who have been introduced to IBM SPSS Statistics during statistics courses. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that all external variables considered in the model directly or indirectly affect the behavioural intention to use statistical software and are therefore relevant for our study. The most influential factors are found to be statistics anxiety and statistics learning value. The latter one plays a central role in our extended TAM, as its impact is stronger when compared with other external variables. The findings from our empirical study are useful for statistics educators. The recommendations proposed can improve the educational process in order to strengthen students' attitudes towards statistics and to decrease the level of statistics anxiety.