TPC-Journal-V1-Issue2

99 Relationship Between Graduate Students’ Statistics Self-Efficacy, Statistics Anxiety, Attitude Toward Statistics, and Social Support Michelle Perepiczka Nichelle Chandler Michael Becerra Statistics plays an integral role in graduate programs. However, numerous intra- and interpersonal factors may lead to successful completion of needed coursework in this area. The authors examined the extent of the relationship between self-efficacy to learn statistics and statistics anxiety, attitude towards statistics, and social support of 166 graduate students enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs within colleges of education. Results indicated that statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics were statistically significant predictors of self-efficacy to learn statistics, yet social support was not a statistically significant predictor of self-efficacy. Insight into how this population responds to statistics courses and implications for educators as well as students are presented. Keywords: graduate students, statistics, anxiety, self-efficacy, attitudes, social support More graduate programs in various social science fields are requiring students to complete research methods including statistics courses or a blended combination thereof (Davis, 2003; Schau, Stevens, Dauphinee, & Del Vecchio, 1995). These course requirements pose a dilemma for educators and students because many students perceive statistics as difficult and unpleasant (Berk & Nanda, 1998). Some students can struggle in statistics courses as a related complication of this perception as well as other intrapersonal factors related to the course. To investigate graduate students’ experiences in statistics courses, researchers studied different avenues to understand what occurs with students so steps can be taken to improve learning as well as satisfaction in college statistics courses. For instance, researchers suggested non-cognitive factors such as motivation for further learning (Gal & Ginsburg, 1994; Finney & Schraw, 2003), statistics self-efficacy (Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003), and attitude toward statistics (Araki & Schultz, 1995; Elmore, Lewis, & Bay, 1993; Waters, Martelli, Zakrajsek & Popovich, 1988; Wise, 1985) should be assessed and addressed with students. Finney and Schraw theorized that the difficulty students experience with statistics is not necessarily due to lack of intelligence or poor aptitude, but may be a result of the above mentioned factors. Bonilla (1997), Cohen and McKay (1984), and Solberg and Villarreal (1997) hypothesized that social support may act as a buffer against the development of these psychological manifestations. The purpose of this study was to examine the various factors that have been introduced in previous research in one comprehensive study. The goal was to determine how graduate student self-efficacy to learn statistics is predicted by statistics anxiety, attitude toward statistics, and social support (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007). The overarching intent was to document graduate student self-efficacy to learn statistics and identify how certain variables influence statistics self-efficacy (Pan & Tang, 2005). Self-Efficacy to Learn Statistics In order to understand the implications of this research, an explanation of the key variables found in the literature review must first be discussed. Self-efficacy to learn statistics is the dependent variable in this study. Bandura (1977) originally defined general self-efficacy as one’s judgments of his or her capabilities to organize and carry out courses of action required to attain specific types of performances. Bandura asserted that self-efficacy beliefs are manifested from four primary sources, which include the following: (a) personal accomplishments, (b) vicarious learning experiences, (c) verbal persuasion, and (d) emotional arousal. These primary sources lay the foundation for building the concept of self-efficacy to learn statistics. Finney and Schraw (2003) defined self-efficacy to learn statistics and developed an assessment to measure The Professional Counselor Volume 1, Issue 2 | Pages 99–108 © 2011 NBCC, Inc. & Affiliates www.nbcc.org http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org doi:10.15241/mpa.1.2.99 Michelle Perepiczka, NCC, and Nichelle Chandler, NCC, are professors at Walden University. Michael Becerra, NCC, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama. Correspondence can be addressed to Michelle Perepiczka, Walden University, School of Social Work and Human Services, 100 Washington Avenue South, Suite 900, Minneapolis, MN, 55401, mperepiczka@gmail.com.