Self‐efficacy matters: Influence of students' perceived self‐efficacy on statistics anxiety. Issue 1 (26th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kaufmann, Liane; Ninaus, Manuel; Weiss, Elisabeth M.; Gruber, Walter; Wood, Guilherme
• Is Part Of: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1514:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 187
• Page End: 197
• Publication Date: 2022-05-26
• Subjects: person‐centered approach -- relevance of statistics -- self‐efficacy -- statistics anxiety; Medical sciences -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14797
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0077-8923

Abstract

Abstract: Statistical knowledge is a key competency for psychologists in order to correctly interpret assessment outcomes. Importantly, when learning statistics (and its mathematical foundations), self‐efficacy (defined as an individual's belief to successfully accomplish specific performance attainments) is a central predictor of students' motivation to learn, learning engagement, and actual achievement. Therefore, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of students' self‐efficacy for statistics and its interrelations with statistics anxiety and students' belief in the relevance of statistics. Here, we present results showing development and validation of a self‐assessment questionnaire for examining self‐efficacy for statistics in psychology students (Self‐Efficacy for Learning Statistics for Psychologists, SES‐Psy). Upon using different methodological approaches, we demonstrate that the SES‐Psy questionnaire has (1) sound psychometric properties, and within our sample of university students, (2) a robust latent structure disclosing three clearly distinctive profiles that are characterized by a complex and nonlinear interplay between perceived self‐efficacy (for basic and advanced statistics), statistics anxiety, and students' belief in the relevance of statistics. Implications for educational settings and future research are discussed. Abstract : We developed an economic assessment tool to evaluate psychologist's self‐efficacy for statistical competencies. We chose to validate the assessment instrument on psychology students attending basic and advanced statistic courses. We extended our approach with a person‐centered analysis using latent profile analysis to shed further light on the relation between motivational and emotional factors, as well as self‐efficacy.