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Reliability and validity of the Statistical Anxiety Scale among students in Singapore and Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2014

Peter K. H. Chew  and
Denise B. Dillon
Peter K. H. Chew*
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Singapore, 600 Upper Thomson Road, Singapore574421
Denise B. Dillon
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Singapore, 600 Upper Thomson Road, Singapore574421
*
corresponding author: Peter K. H. Chew, James Cook University, Singapore574421 Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Given the negative relationships between statistics anxiety and statistics achievement, it is important for researchers and instructors to have a reliable and valid measure to identify students with statistics anxiety. The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of Vigil-Colet, Lorenzo-Seva, and Condon's (2008) Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS) among students in Singapore and Australia. Unlike the commonly used Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale, the SAS provides a specific measure of statistics anxiety. Participants were 197 undergraduates (79.2% female) in the James Cook University Psychology programs at the Singaporean (70.1%) and Australian (29.9 %) campuses. Acceptable internal consistency reliabilities, ranging from 0.88 to 0.95 for the three factors of the SAS, were found in the current study. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that a modified three-factor model best describe the data. Scores on the SAS shared positive correlations with another measure of statistics anxiety, and negative correlations with a measure of attitudes toward statistics. The results provided support for the use of the SAS among Singaporean and Australian psychology undergraduates.

Keywords

statistics anxietystatistical anxiety scalereliabilityvalidity
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Tropical Psychology , Volume 4 , 2014 , e7
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014 

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