Adaptation of Statistics Anxiety Scale to Turkish: Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to adapt the Statistics Anxiety Scale (SAS) developed by Vigil-Colet et al. (2008) to Turkish. This study is expected to fill an important gap in the literature since no valid and reliable specific statistics anxiety scale developed or adapted in Turkish for undergraduate students in the literature is available. The sample consists of a total of 439 university students, 258 women and 181 men, studying at Düzce University. The construct validity of the Turkish form of SAS was examined by EFA and DFA. Also, for the criterion validity, a different statistics anxiety scale whose validity and reliability tested was used. As a result of EFA, a three-dimensional structure was obtained as in the structure of the original scale. According to the CFA results, which is the second analysis for construct validity, all fit index results of the model were at an acceptable level. Thus, the CFA results supported the three-factor structure obtained from EFA findings. As a result of the reliability analysis, the Cronbach's Alpha internal coefficients of the SAS and its subscales and, the Guttman and Spearman-Brown internal consistency coefficients of Split-Half Reliability methods were quite high and above the limit of 0.70. For item discrimination, items have good discrimination by obtaining all values above 0.30 lower limit in the results. When the results of the study are evaluated as a whole, the SAS form adapted to Turkish can be used as a guiding scale to measure the statistics anxiety of undergraduate students.

Keywords

• Statistics anxiety
• Measuring statistics anxiety
• Scale adaptation
• Validity
• Reliability

References

1. Alexander, E. S., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2007). Academic procrastination and the role of hope as a coping strategy. Personality and individual differences, 42(7), 1301-1310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.10.008
2. Baloglu, M. (2001): An application of structural equation modelling techniques in the prediction of statistics anxiety among college students. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation.] Texas A & M. University, Commerce, TX. Retrieved from https://iase-web.org/documents/dissertations/01.baloglu.pdf
3. Baloglu, M., Deniz, E. M., & Kesici, S. (2011). A descriptive study of individual and cross-cultural differences in statistics anxiety. Learning and Individual Differences, 21, 387-391.
4. Baloğlu, M. (2002). Psychometric properties of the statistics anxiety rating scale. Psychological Reports, 90(1), 315-325. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.2002.90.1.315
5. Baloğlu, M., & Zelhart, P. (2004). Üniversite öğrencileri arasında yüksek ve düşük istatistik kaygısının ayrıştırıcıları [Discriminants of the Low-and-High Statistics Anxiety Among College Students]. Eğitim ve Bilim, 29(133).
6. Barlow, D. H. (2002). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic. Guilford press. Retrieved from books.google.com
7. Bektaş, H., Akman, S., & Yeşilaltay, E. (2021). İstatistik Kaygı Ölçeğinin (SAS) Psikometrik Özelliklerinin İncelenmesi [An Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS)]. İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 8(1), 1-14. https://dx.doi.org/10.17336/igusbd.627197
8. Benson, J., & Bandalos, D. (1989). Structural model of statistical test anxiety in adults. Advances in test Anxiety Research, 6, 137-154.

9. Bradley, D.R., & Wygant, C.R. (1998). Male and female differences in anxiety about statistics are not reflected in performance. Psychological Reports, 82, 245-246. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1998.82.1.245
10. Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2010). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı [Data Analysis Handbook for Social Sciences]. Pegem Akademi
11. Chew, P. K. (2016). An absence of attentional bias: Statistics anxiety is unique among anxieties. [Doctoral dissertation, James Cook University].
12. Chew, P. K. H. and Dillon, D. B. (2014). Reliability and validity of the Statistical Anxiety Scale among students in Singapore and Australia. Journal of Tropical Psychology, 4, e7. https://doi.org/10.1017/jtp.2014.7
13. Chiesi, F., Primi, C., & Marquez, C. J. (2011). Measuring Statistics Anxiety: CrossCountry Validity of the Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS). Journal of Psychoeducational Assessments, 29(6), 559–569. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282911404985
14. Collins, K. M. T., & Onwuegbuzie, A. T. (2007). I cannot read my statistics textbook: The relationship between reading ability andstatistics anxiety. The Journal of Negro Education, 76(2), 118-129. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40034551
15. Condron, D. J., Becker, J. H., & Bzhetaj, L. (2018). Sources of students’ anxiety in a multidisciplinary social statistics course. Teaching Sociology, 46(4), 346-355. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X18780501
16. Cruise, R. J., Cash, R. W., & Bolton, D. L. (1985 August). Development and validation of an instrument to measure statistical anxiety. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Statistical Education Section, Chicago, IL.
17. Donnelly, R. (2009). Embedding interaction within a blend of learner centric pedagogy and technology. World Journal on Educational Technology, 1(1), 6-29.
18. Earp, S.M. (2007). Development and validation of the statistics anxiety measure. [Unpublished Doctorate Dissertation, The University of Denver, College of Education]. Retrieved from https://iase-web.org/documents/dissertations/07.Earp.Dissertation.pdf
19. Emmioğlu, E., & Capa-Aydin, Y. (2012). Attitudes and achievement in statistics: A meta-analysis study. Statistics education research journal, 11(2), 95-102.
20. Eş, A., & Durak, H. S. (2018). Meslek Yüksekokulu Öğrencilerinin İş Bulma Kaygılarına Yönelik Ölçek Geliştirme: Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Örneği [Scale Development Oriented to Employment Apprehension of the Students in Vocational Schools: Abant Izzet Baysal University Example]. Ekonomik ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 14, 115-127.
21. Faber, G., Drexler, H., Stappert, A., & Eichhorn, J. (2018). Education science students’ statistics anxiety: Developing and analyzing a scale for measuring their worry, avoidance, and emotionality cognitions. International Journal of Educational Psychology, 7(3), 248-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/ijep.2018.2872
22. Ferrando, P.J., Varea, M.D., & Lorenzo, U. (1999). A psychometric study of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children in a Spanish sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 16, 26-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00227-X
23. Fitzgerald, S. M., Jurs, S., & Hudson, L. M. (1996). A model predicting statistics achievement among graduate students. College Student Journal, 30, 361-366.
24. Furnham, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2004). Personality and intelligence as predictors of statistics examination grades. Personality and individual differences, 37(5), 943-955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2003.10.016
25. Gal, I., & Ginsburg, L. (1994). The role of beliefs and attitudes in learning statistics: Towards an assessment framework. Journal of Statistics Education, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.1994.11910471
26. Grajzel, K. (2019). Validation of the Statistical Anxiety Scale Among College Students in the United States. [M. S. Dissertation, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Kraemer Family Library]. Retrieved from https://mountainscholar.org/handle/10976/167108
27. Güler, N., Teker, G. T., & Ilhan, M. (2019). The Turkish Adaptation of the Statistics Anxiety Scale for Graduate Students. Journal of Measurement and Evaluation in Education and Psychology, 10(4), 435-450.
28. Hanna, D. & Dempster, M. (2009). The effect of statistics anxiety on students’ predicted and actual test scores. Irish J. Psych., 30, 201 209. https://doi.org/10.1080/03033910.2009.10446310
29. Hanna, D., Shevlin, M., & Dempster, M. (2008). The structure of the statistics anxiety rating scale: A confirmatory factor analysis using UK psychology students. Personality and Individual Differences, 45(1), 65-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.02.021
30. Hazrati-Viari, A., Rad, A. T., & Torabi, S. S. (2012). The effect of personality traits on academic performance: The mediating role of academic motivation. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 32, 367-371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.01.055
31. Hembree, R. (1990). The nature, effects, and relief of mathematics anxiety. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 21, 33 46. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.21.1.0033
32. International Test Commission. (2017). The ITC guidelines for translating and adapting tests (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://www.intestcom.org/files/guideline_test_adaptation_2ed.pdf
33. Joe A.I. (2005). Fundamental Statistics for Education and the Behaviour Sciences: Ibadan; Kraft Books Limited.
34. Karagöz, Y. (2016). SPSS 23 ve AMOS 23 uygulamalı istatistiksel analizler [Statistical Analyses with Application of SPSS 23 and AMOS 23]. Nobel Akademik Yayıncılık.
35. Köklü, N. (1996). İstatistik kaygı ölçeği: Psikometrik veriler [Statistics Anxiety Scale: Psychometric Data]. Eğitim ve Bilim, 20(102), 45-49.
36. Liu, S., Ownhuegbuzie, A. J., & Meg, L. (2011). Examination of the score reliability and validity of the statistics anxiety rating scale in a Chinese population: Comparisons of statistics anxiety between Chinese college students and their Western counterparts. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 11(1), 29-42.
37. Malik, S. (2015). Undergraduates' Statistics Anxiety: A Phenomenological Study. Qualitative Report, 20(2), 120-133.
38. Mji, A., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Evidence of score reliability and validity of the statistical anxiety rating scale among technikon students in South Africa. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 36(4), 238 251. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.2004.11909745
39. Nasser, F. M. (2004). Structural model of the effects of cognitive and affective factors on the achievement of arabic-speaking pre-service teachers in introductory statistics. Journal of Statistics Education, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2004.11910717
40. O’Bryant, M. J. (2017). How attitudes towards statistics course and the field of statistics predicts statistics anxiety among undergraduate social science majors: A validation of the Statistical Anxiety Scale [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Texas. Denton, TX]. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED584089
41. Onwuegbuzie, A.J., & Daley, C.E. (1999). Perfectionism and statistics anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 1089-1102.
42. Onwuegbuzie, A.J., & Wilson, V.A. (2003) Statistics anxiety; Nature, etiology, antecedents, effects and treatments – a comprehensive review of the literature.Teaching in Higher Education, 8,195-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251032000052447
43. Onwuegbuzie, A.J., DaRos, D. & Ryan, J. (1997). Perfectionism and statistics anxiety: a phenomenological study. Focus Learning Problems Math., 19(4), 11–35.
44. Parker, R. S., Pettijohn, C. E. and Keillor, B. D. (1999), The nature and role of statistics in the business school curriculum. Journal of Education for Business, 751, 51-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832329909598990
45. Paul, L., Parveen, T., Ahmed, O., & Aktar, R. (2018). Adaptation Study of The Statistical Anxiety Scale on A Bangladeshi Sample. Bulgarian Journal of Science & Education Policy, 12(2), 380-401.
46. Pretorius, T. B., & Norman, A. M. (1992). Psychometric data on the Statistics Anxiety Scale for a sample of South African students. Educational and Psychological Measurements, 52, 933-937. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052004015
47. Primi, C., & Chiesi, F. (2018, July). The role of mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety in learning statistics. Paper presented at the10th International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Kyoto, Japan. Retrieved from https://iase web.org/icots/10/proceedings/pdfs/ICOTS10_5E2.pdf
48. Rindermann, H., & Neubauer, A.C. (2001). The influence of personality on three aspects of cognitive performance: Processing speed, intelligence and school performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 829-842. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00076-3
49. Roberts, D. M., & Bilderbeck, E. W. (1980). Reliability and validity of statistics attitude survey. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 40(1), 235 238. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316448004000138
50. Sarı, M. H., Arıkan, S., & Yıldızlı, H. (2017). Factors Predicting Mathematics Achievement of 8th Graders in TIMSS 2015. Journal of Measurement and Evaluation in Education and Psychology, 8(3), 246-265. https://doi.org/10.21031/epod.303689
51. Scherer, R. F., Luther, D. C., Wiebe, F. A., & Adams, J. S. (1988). Dimensionality of coping: Factor stability using the ways of coping questionnaire. Psychological Reports, 62(3), 763-770. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1988.62.3.763
52. Spielberger, C.D. (1983). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI). Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.
53. Stoloff, M., McCarthy, M., Keller, L., Varfolomeeva, V., Lynch, J., Makara, K., Simmons, S., Smiley, W. (2009). The undergraduate psychology major: An examination of structure and sequence. Teaching of Psychology, 37(1), 4 15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00986280903426274
54. Sutarso, T. (1992). Some Variables in Relation to Students' Anxiety in Learning Statistics. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 353 334)
55. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
56. Tan, Ş. (2009). Misuses of KR-20 and Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients. TED Education and Science, 34(152), 101-112.
57. Utts, J. (2003). What educated citizens should know about statistics and probability. The American Statistician, 57(2), 74-79. https://doi.org/10.1198/0003130031630
58. Vahedi, S., Farrokhi, F., Gahramani, F., & Issazadegan, A. (2012). The relationship between procrastination, learning strategies and statistics anxiety among Iranian college students: a canonical correlation analysis. Iranian journal of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, 6(1), 40.
59. Vigil-Colet, A., Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Condon, L. (2008). Development and validation of the statistical anxiety scale. Psicothema, 20(1), 174-180.
60. Young, V. E. and Nelson, C. V. (1994). A survey of the impressions of economics departments of the Quantitative courses required of economics majors. Annual Meeting of theMid-Western Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
61. Zahrakar, K., (2008). Stress Consultant. (1st ed). Tehran: Bal University Publication, (chapter 1).
62. Zanakis, S. H., & Valenzi, E. R. (1997). Student anxiety and attitudes in business statistics. Journal of Education for Business, 73(1), 10 16. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832329709601608
63. Zeidner, M. (1991). Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students-some interesting parallels. British J. Educ. Psych., 61, 319 328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1991.tb00989.x
64. Zhou, M. (2015). Moderating effect of self-determination in the relationship between Big Five personality and academic performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 385-389. ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.005