Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Matthew Howren

Abstract

Students who experience statistics anxiety have reported struggling with academic performance, an increase in academic dishonesty, and an aversion to careers or majors that are perceived to rely on statistical skills. Research has suggested that statistics anxiety is related to lower levels of motivation; however, it remains unknown if, or to what extent, self-regulated learning skills, including management of time and effort, complex cognitive strategy use, simple cognitive strategy use, contacts with others, and academic thinking may play a role in the relationship between motivation and statistics anxiety. This research study relies on the theoretical foundation of social cognitive theory, which proposes that statistics anxiety is a result of the reciprocal relationship between personal, cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the extent to which self-regulated learning strategies mediate the relationship between motivation and statistics anxiety in online higher education students. In this correlational research study, a mediation analysis with multiple linear regressions was used to analyze data collected from an online survey of 158 online graduate students. Most notably, management of time and effort mediated the relationship and reduced statistics anxiety for the sample. Learning strategies that were identified to mediate the relationship have implications for positive social change by influencing the design of statistics curriculum education to reduce statistics anxiety.

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