A Measure of Statistical Anxiety Designed for Social Science Students

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Validity and Assessing Survey Data in Educational Research

Abstract

This study created tool to measure statistical anxiety for applied social science fields using exploratory factor analysis and Rasch modeling. Instructors of research and statistics courses need a quick way to gauge anxiety about statistics to support graduate students with items that match the applied learning. Current measures were too long or not applicable to social science content. This study created and validated a ten item tool with 151 masters and doctoral students in a college of education and human development. The measure shows invariance across age, race/ethnicity, sex, course level, research vs. statistics courses, degree program, degree level, and how students view themselves as researchers. Differential item functioning was noted by previous statistic course experiences.

Authors

• Courtney Donovan, University of Colorado - Denver

• Chen Zong, University of Colorado - Denver