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

Year 2025, Volume: 32 Issue: 2, 145 - 155, 19.06.2025

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

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

biostatistics , anxiety , attitude , self-efficacy

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.

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