The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis

Kamber Kaşali; Senem Gönenç; Didem Özkal Eminoğlu; Şennur Bakırtaş; Didar Betül Doğan

doi:10.17343/sdutfd.1606593

The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis

Abstract

Objective: In this study, the mediating relationship among statistical self-efficacy beliefs, statistical anxiety, and statistical attitudes of students taking biostatistics courses was examined. The population of our study consisted of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students taking biostatistics courses. Material and Method: The study population comprised a total of 85 students, with 51 at the undergraduate level and 34 at the graduate and doctoral levels. Data for our study were collected at three different stages before the course (Pre), in the 8th week of the course (Intra), and at the end of the course (Post). The participation rates were as follows: Pre-course: 74 (87%), Intra-course: 59 (69%), and Post-course: 62 (73%). The "Statistical Self-Efficacy Belief Scale," "Statistical Anxiety Scale," and "Statistical Attitude Scale" were used to collect data in the research. The mediating role between statistical self-efficacy beliefs, statistical anxiety, and statistical attitudes was analyzed using the regression-based Bootstrapping technique. Results: Analysis results showed that statistical anxiety had a mediating effect on the relationship between statistical attitudes and statistical self-efficacy beliefs before the course (p=0.013). At the 8th week of the course, a mediating effect of statistical anxiety was found in the relationship between statistical attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs (p=0.033). At the end of the course, no mediating effect of statistical anxiety was found in the relationship between statistical attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs (p=0.298). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that during the biostatistics course, statistical anxiety had a mediating effect on the relationship between statistical attitudes and statistical self-efficacy beliefs at the beginning and during the course; however, this effect disappeared at the end of the course. As a result of the research, the mediating role among statistical self-efficacy beliefs, statistical anxiety, and statistical attitudes of students taking biostatistics courses was found to be significant.

Keywords

Ethical Statement

Ethical approval was obtained from "Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Ethics Committee" (date: 31/103/2022; number: B.30.2.ATA.0.01.00/244). The study was conducted in accordance with the principles set forth in the Declaration of Helsinki.

References

1. Tunç T, Yumuk F, Kolay E. The relationship between students' problem-solving skills, self-esteem, and statistical attitude. Black Sea J Eng Sci 2021;4(3):117-25. https://doi.org/10.34248/bsengineering.949036.
2. Akman S. Investigation of the factors affecting the statistics course examination anxiety: A research on university students. Ekoist J Econometrics Stat 2021;(34):13-36. https://doi: 10.26650/ekoist.2021.34.930217.
3. Onwuegbuzie AJ. The dimensions of statistics anxiety: A comparison of prevalence rates among mid-southern university students. Louisiana Educ Res J 1998;23:23-40.
4. Chew PK, Dillon DB. Statistics anxiety update: Refining the construct and recommendations for a new research agenda. Perspect Psychol Sci 2014;9(2):196-208. https://doi: 10.1177/1745691613518077
5. Baloğlu M. The relationship between statistics anxiety and attitudes toward statistics. Ankara Univ J Fac Educ Sci (JFES) 2007;40(2):23-39. https://doi.org/10.1501/Egifak_0000000179
6. Saidi SS, Siew NM. Assessing secondary school students’ statistical reasoning, attitude towards statistics, and statistics anxiety. Stat Educ Res J 2022;21(1):6-6. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v21i1.67
7. Gürsoy K, Güler M, Çelik R. Investigation of 7th and 8th grade secondary school students' attitudes towards statistics in terms of various variables. Turk J Comput Math Educ (TURCOMAT) 2014;5(1):60-72. https://doi: 10.16949/turcomat.04831
8. Ghani FHA, Maat SM. Anxiety and achievement in statistics: A systematic review on quantitative studies. Creat Educ 2018;9:2280-90. doi: 10.4236/ce.2018.914168

9. Finney S, Schraw G. Self-efficacy beliefs in college statistics courses. Contemp Educ Psychol 2003;28(2):161-86. doi: 10.1016/S0361-476X(02)00015-2
10. Elasan S, Keskin S. Student attitudes towards biostatistics course: The Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. J Educ Humanit Theory Pract 2020;11(21):27-38.
11. Suner Karakülah A, Ersoy E. Investigation of dentistry students' attitudes towards biostatistics course and their success. Ege J Med 2017;56(1):17-23. doi: 10.19161/etd.344293
12. Roberts DM, Bilderbac EW. Reliability and validity of a statistical attitude survey. Educ Psychol Meas 1980;40(1):235-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316448004000138
13. Roberts DM, Saxe JE. Validity of a statistics attitude survey: A follow-up study. Educ Psychol Meas 1982;42(3):907-2. doi: 10.1177/001316448204200326
14. Wise SL. The development and validation of a scale measuring attitudes toward statistics. Educ Psychol Meas 1985;45(2):401-5.
15. Waters LK, Martelli T, Zakrajsek T, et al. Measuring attitudes toward statistics in an introductory course on statistics. Psychol Rep 1989;64(1):113-4.
16. Onwuegbuzie AJ. Statistics anxiety and the role of self-perceptions. J Educ Res 2000;93(5):323-30. doi: 10.1080/00220670009598724
17. DeVaney TA. Anxiety and attitude of graduate students in on-campus vs online statistics courses. J Stat Educ 2010;18(1): doi: 10.1080/10691898.2010.11889472
18. Macher D, Paechter M, Papousek I, et al. Statistical anxiety, state anxiety during an examination, and academic achievement. Br J Educ Psychol 2013;83(4):535-49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2012.02081.x
19. Sesé A, Jiménez R, Montaño J, et al. Can attitudes toward statistics and statistics anxiety explain students’ performance? Rev Psicodidact 2015;20(2):285-304. doi: 10.1387/RevPsicodidact.13080
20. Swanson JC, Meinen DB, Swanson NE. Business Communications: A highly valued core course in business administration. J Educ Bus 1994;69(4):235-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.1994.10117691
21. Zanakis SH, Valenzi ER. Student anxiety and attitudes in business statistics. J Educ Bus 1997;73:10-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832329709601608
22. Royse D, Rompf EL. Math anxiety: A comparison of social work and non-social work students. J Soc Work Educ 1992;28:270-7. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.1992.10778780
23. Mendes RA, Loxton NJ, Stuart J, et al. Statistics anxiety or statistics fear? A reinforcement sensitivity theory perspective on psychology students’ statistics anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy. Eur J Psychol Educ 2024;2461-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00802-z
24. Cook KD, Catanzaro BA. “Constantly working on my attitude towards statistics!” Education doctoral students’ experiences with and motivations for learning statistics. Innov High Educ 2023;48(2):257-84. doi: 10.1007/s10755-022-09621-w
25. Vigil-Colet A, Lorenzo-Seva U, Condon L. Development and validation of the statistical anxiety scale. Psicothema 2008;20(1):174-80.
26. Ogbonnaya KE, Okechi BC, Nwankwo BC. Impact of statistics anxiety and self-efficacy on statistical performance of psychology students. Niger J Soc Psychol 2019;2(2):222-38.
27. Finney SJ, Schraw G. Self-efficacy beliefs in college statistics courses. Contemp Educ Psychol 2003;28(2):161-86. doi: 10.1016/S0361-476X(02)00015-2
28. Sevimli NE, Aydın E. Adaptation of statistics self-efficacy belief scale to a Turkish sample. J Educ Humanit Theory Pract 2017;8(16):44-57.
29. Faber G, Drexler H, Stappert A, et al. Education science students’ statistics anxiety: Developing and analyzing a scale for measuring their worry, avoidance, and emotionality cognitions. Int J Educ Psychol 2018;7(3):248-85. doi: 10.17583/ijep.2018.2872
30. Güler N, Taşdelen Teker G, İlhan M. The Turkish adaptation of the statistics anxiety scale for graduate students. J Meas Eval Educ Psychol 2019;10(4):435-50. doi: 10.21031/epod.550765
31. Köklü N. Reliability and validity of a statistics attitude scale. Educ Sci 1994;18(93):42-7.
32. Akyüz HE, Topcu D. Structural equation modeling approach to determine the effect of attitude towards statistics on statistical self-efficacy belief. Bitlis Eren Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Dergisi 2022;11(3):836-845. doi:10.17798/bitlisfen.1123197.
33. Bourne VJ, Clarke PL, Felton A, Iliopoulou M, Maksimenko O. Exploring statistics anxiety and self-efficacy in psychology undergraduate students. Psychology Teaching Review 2024;30(2). doi:10.53841/bpsptr.2024.30.2.17.
34. Hernandez de la Hera JM, Morales-Rodriguez F, Rodriguez-Gobiet JP, Martinez-Ramon J. Attitudes toward mathematics/statistics, anxiety, self-efficacy and academic performance: An artificial neural network. Front Psychol 2023;14. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1214892.
35. Peiro-Signes A, Trull O, Segarra‐Ona M, Garcia-Diaz JC. Anxiety towards statistics and its relationship with students’ attitudes and learning approach. Behav Sci (Basel) 2021;11(3). doi:10.3390/bs11030032.
36. Amirgholami E, Heydarei A, Askari P, Weisani M. Determining the relationship between achievement goals and students' anxiety in statistics course about the mediating role of self-efficacy. J Adolesc Youth Psychol Stud 2023. doi:10.61838/kman.jayps.4.6.10.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Medical Education

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Kamber Kaşali
0000-0002-2851-5263
Türkiye

Senem Gönenç
0000-0002-6990-1507
Türkiye

Didem Özkal Eminoğlu
0000-0001-9406-3368
Türkiye

Şennur Bakırtaş
0000-0002-2359-0790
Türkiye

Didar Betül Doğan ^*
0000-0001-9495-6254
Türkiye

Publication Date

June 19, 2025

Submission Date

December 25, 2024

Acceptance Date

May 23, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 32 Number: 2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.17343/sdutfd.1606593

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA65FN96ZF

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Kaşali, K., Gönenç, S., Özkal Eminoğlu, D., Bakırtaş, Ş., & Doğan, D. B. (2025). The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis. Medical Journal of Süleyman Demirel University, 32(2), 145-155. https://doi.org/10.17343/sdutfd.1606593

AMA

1.Kaşali K, Gönenç S, Özkal Eminoğlu D, Bakırtaş Ş, Doğan DB. The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis. Med J SDU. 2025;32(2):145-155. doi:10.17343/sdutfd.1606593

Chicago

Kaşali, Kamber, Senem Gönenç, Didem Özkal Eminoğlu, Şennur Bakırtaş, and Didar Betül Doğan. 2025. “The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis”. Medical Journal of Süleyman Demirel University 32 (2): 145-55. https://doi.org/10.17343/sdutfd.1606593.

EndNote

Kaşali K, Gönenç S, Özkal Eminoğlu D, Bakırtaş Ş, Doğan DB (June 1, 2025) The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis. Medical Journal of Süleyman Demirel University 32 2 145–155.

IEEE

[1]K. Kaşali, S. Gönenç, D. Özkal Eminoğlu, Ş. Bakırtaş, and D. B. Doğan, “The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis”, Med J SDU, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 145–155, June 2025, doi: 10.17343/sdutfd.1606593.

ISNAD

Kaşali, Kamber - Gönenç, Senem - Özkal Eminoğlu, Didem - Bakırtaş, Şennur - Doğan, Didar Betül. “The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis”. Medical Journal of Süleyman Demirel University 32/2 (June 1, 2025): 145-155. https://doi.org/10.17343/sdutfd.1606593.

JAMA

1.Kaşali K, Gönenç S, Özkal Eminoğlu D, Bakırtaş Ş, Doğan DB. The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis. Med J SDU. 2025;32:145–155.

MLA

Kaşali, Kamber, et al. “The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis”. Medical Journal of Süleyman Demirel University, vol. 32, no. 2, June 2025, pp. 145-5, doi:10.17343/sdutfd.1606593.

Vancouver

1.Kamber Kaşali, Senem Gönenç, Didem Özkal Eminoğlu, Şennur Bakırtaş, Didar Betül Doğan. The Mediating Role of Statistical Anxiety in the Relationship Between Statistical Attitudes and Statistical Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Students Taking Biostatistics Courses: A Path Analysis. Med J SDU. 2025 Jun. 1;32(2):145-5. doi:10.17343/sdutfd.1606593