Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Two Versions of the Statistical Anxiety Scale in a Sample of American Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46328/ijres.5270Keywords:
Statistics anxiety, Statistics Anxiety Scale, Statistics education, Undergraduate statistics studentsAbstract
The objective of this study was to confirm the factor structure for two versions of the Statistics Anxiety Scale (SAS) created for American undergraduate statistics students. To address the inconsistent factor structure of SAS across different populations, Lorenzo-Seva et al. (2022) revised the SAS. This version reduced the number of questions and added a 4th factor called social desirability. They reported a good fit without the need for introducing correlations between error terms, which were outcomes found in different versions of the SAS including this study. This revised SAS considers a 4th dimension called social desirability, suggesting that this dimension could account for much of the error variance found in previous studies. That dimension was not included in this study. A modified three factor model explained construct validity in the original version of the SAS. A modified five factor model explained construct validity in a version of the SAS with additional items. Both versions of the SAS and their factors displayed acceptable levels of fit, were found to have reliability coefficients above .70, and generally shared moderate negative relationships with Wise’s Attitude Toward Statistics scale.
References
Aggarwal, R. (2018). Statistical literacy for healthcare professionals: Why is it important? Annals of Cardiac Anaesthesia, 21(4), 349-350. https://doi.org/10.4103/aca.ACA_177_18
Berndt, M., Schmidt, F. M., Sailer, M., Fischer, F., Fischer, M. R., & Zottmann, J. M. (2021). Investigating statistical literacy and scientific reasoning & argumentation in medical-, social sciences-, and economics students. Learning and Individual Differences, 86, 101963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101963
Brooks, P. J., Gravelle, C. D., Zapparrata, N. M., Che, E. S., Lodhi, A. K., Roberts, R., & Brodsky, J. E. (2024). Redesigning the introductory psychology course to support statistical literacy at an open-admissions college. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000407
Chew, P. K. H., & Dillon, D. B. (2014). Reliability and validity of the Statistical Anxiety Scale among students in Singapore and Australia. Journal of Tropical Psychology, 4(7), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1017/jtp.2014.7
Chiesi, F., Primi, C., & Carmona, J. (2011). Measuring statistics anxiety: Cross-country validity of the Statistics Anxiety Scale (SAS). Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29, 559-569. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282911404985
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Cruise, R. J., Cash, R. W., & Bolton, D. L. (1985, August). Development and validation of an instrument to measure statistical anxiety. In American Statistical Association Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education (Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 92-97). American Statistical Association.
JASP Team (2024). JASP (Version 19.2)[Computer software].
Johannssen, A., Chukhrova, N., Schmal, F., & Stabenow, K. (2021). Statistical Literacy—Misuse of Statistics and Its Consequences. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 29(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2020.1860727
Kaufmann, L., Ninaus, M., Weiss, E. M., Gruber, W., & Wood, G. (2022). Self‐efficacy matters: Influence of students’ perceived self‐efficacy on statistics anxiety. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1514(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14797
Lindsay, K. G., Kirby, J. B., & Adamson, B. C. (2024). Re-Validation and Exploration of Modified Versions of the Statistics Anxiety Scale Developed for College Students in the United States. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 10(2), 426–445. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijres.3400
Lorenzo-Seva, U., Vigil-Colet, A. & Ferrando, P. J. (2022). Development of a Revised Version of the Statistical Anxiety Scale. Psicothema, 34(4), 562-570. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2022.231
Manzar, S., El Koussaify, J., Garcia, V. C., Ozdag, Y., Akoon, A., Dwyer, C. L., Klena, J. C., & Grandizio, L. C. (2023). Statistical Literacy in Hand and Upper-Extremity Patients. Journal of Hand Surgery Global Online, 5(6), 793–798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsg.2023.07.009
Nolan, M. M., Beran, t., & Hecker, K. G. (2012). Surveys assessing students’ attitudes toward statistics: a systematic review of validity and reliability. Statistics Education Research Journal, 11(2), 103–123. Https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v11i2.333
Nousak, S., Barry, L., & Fisk, S. R. (2024). Deepening Learning and Addressing Inequalities: A Psychosocial Approach to Improving Statistical Literacy Throughout Sociology Curricula. Teaching Sociology, 52(3), 276–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055x231222280
O’Bryant, M., Batley, P.N., & Onwuegbuzie, A.J. (2021). Validation of an adapted version of the Statistical Anxiety Scale in English and its relationship to attitudes toward statistics. SAGE Open, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211001378
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(2), 195-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251032000052447
Rajecki, D. W., Appleby, D., Williams, C. C., Johnson, K., & Jeschke, M. P. (2005). Statistics can wait: Career plans activity and course preferences of American psychology undergraduates. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 4(2), 83–89. https://doi.org/10.2304/plat.2004.4.2.83
Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T. L., & Vecchio, A. D. (1995). The Development and Validation of the Survey of Attitudes toward Statistics. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55(5), 868–875. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164495055005022
Schmidt, F. M., Zottmann, J. M., Sailer, M., Fischer, M. R., & Berndt, M. (2021). Statistical literacy and scientific reasoning & argumentation in physicians. GMS Journal for Medical Education, 38(4), Doc77. https://doi.org/10.3205/zma001473
Vigil-Colet, A., Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Condon, L. (2008). Development and validation of the Statistical Anxiety Scale. Psicotherma, 20(1), 174-180. https://doi.org/10.1037/t62688-000
Wise, S. L. (1985). The development and validation of a scale measuring attitudes toward statistics. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 45(2),401-405. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131644850450022
Woltenberg, L. N. (2021). Cultivating Statistical Literacy Among Health Professions Students: a Curricular Model. Medical Science Educator, 31(2), 417–422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01256-4
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Research in Education and Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Articles may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Authors alone are responsible for the contents of their articles. The journal owns the copyright of the articles. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of the research material.
The author(s) of a manuscript agree that if the manuscript is accepted for publication in the International Journal of Research in Education and Science (IJRES), the published article will be copyrighted using a Creative Commons “Attribution 4.0 International” license. This license allows others to freely copy, distribute, and display the copyrighted work, and derivative works based upon it, under certain specified conditions.
Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to include any images or artwork for which they do not hold copyright in their articles, or to adapt any such images or artwork for inclusion in their articles. The copyright holder must be made explicitly aware that the image(s) or artwork will be made freely available online as part of the article under a Creative Commons “Attribution 4.0 International” license.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
