Statistical anxiety and attitudes towards statistics: Criterion-related construct validity of the HFS-R questionnaire revisited using Rasch models

Abstract

In 2018, Nielsen and Kreiner provided evidence that the Attitudes and Relationship to Statistics—Revised (HFS-R) questionnaire provides essentially valid, objective, and reliable measurement of three statistical anxiety constructs and one statistical attitude construct among students of sociology and public health. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to revisit the HFS-R instrument to assess the degree to which the properties of the instrument and its subscales extends to students of psychology. The study confirmed that this was largely the case. HFS-R is again found to provide essentially valid, objective and reliable measures of a three-dimensional construct related to Statistical Anxiety and a unidimensional construct associated with attitudes towards statistics. This paper provides the documentation supporting these claims.

Keywords

• statistical anxiety
• attitudes towards statistics
• higher education
• rasch models
• hfs-r