Statistics Anxiety and Self-Concept of Beginning Students in the Social Sciences - A Matter of Gender and Socio-Cultural Background?

Abstract

It is still largely underresearched whether different groups of students in the social sciences begin their studies in higher education with diverging attitudes towards statistics. In this article, we analyze whether gender and socio-cultural background affect statistics anxiety and statistics self-concept at the start of studies. A survey among 504 first-year students from two fields of study and two universities in Germany revealed considerable differences in students' attitudinal preconditions for learning depending on gender and, to a minor degree, depending on migration background. Based on these results, we discuss implications for teaching in higher education. 16.12.2015 | Manuel Förster & Andreas Maur (Mainz)

Keywords

• statistics anxiety
• statistics self-concept
• social sciences
• gender differences
• socio-cultural differences