Statistics Anxiety and the Role of Self-Perceptions

Abstract The relationship between 7 dimensions of self-perception and 6 dimensions of statistics anxiety was investigated using a canonical correlation analysis. Participants were 146 students enrolled in graduate-level research methodology courses. The first canonical function revealed that students with the lowest levels of perceived scholastic competence, perceived intellectual ability, and perceived creativity tended to have the highest levels of statistics anxiety associated with worth of statistics, interpretation anxiety, test and class anxiety, computational self-concept, fear of asking for help, and fear of the statistics instructor. A comparison of the standardized and structure coefficients suggests that perceived self-worth served as a suppressor variable. Implications of the findings are discussed.