The Development and Validation of the Statistics Comprehensive Anxiety Response Evaluation

Abstract

Statistics anxiety has been reported to be common for many college students across a variety of majors. There are several scales that are used to measure statistics anxiety, with the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale being the most widely used. Psychometric data is limited for all of these scales which is why this study attempted to create a psychometrically sound measure of statistics anxiety that could be used by instructors and researchers across a wide range of disciplines. The Statistics Comprehensive Anxiety Response Evaluation (SCARE) was developed and found to possess strong psychometric properties. The different types of reliabilities examined were internal consistency, test-retest, and split-half, whereas the validities included content, construct, concurrent, and predictive. Most noteworthy was that the SCARE was used to show that high levels of statistics anxiety were associated with lower performance in a statistics course. This measure may be used in identifying students who may be at a psychological disadvantage prior to taking a statistics course so instructional modifications may be made for those with high levels of statistics anxiety.