Statistics Related Self-Efficacy A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Demonstrating a Significant Link to Prior Mathematics Experiences for Graduate Level Students

The present study examined students' statistics-related self-efficacy, as measured with the current statistics self-efficacy (CSSE) inventory developed by Finney and Schraw (2003). Structural equation modeling was used to check the confirmatory factor analysis of the one-dimensional factor of CSSE. Once confirmed, this factor was used to test whether a significant link to prior mathematics experiences exists. Additionally a new post-structural equation modeling (SEM) application was employed to compute error-free latent variable score for CSSE in an effort to examine the ancillary effects of gender, age, ethnicity, department, degree level, hours completed, expected course grade, number of college-level math classes, current GPA on students' CSSE scores. Results support the one-dimensional construct and as expected, the model demonstrated a significant link between CSSE scores and prior mathematics experiences to CSSE. Additionally the students' department, expected grade, and number of prior math classes were found to have a significant effect on student's CSSE scores.