A descriptive study of individual and cross-cultural differences in statistics anxiety

The present study investigated individual and cross-cultural differences in statistics anxiety among 223 Turkish and 237 American college students. A 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed on the six dependent variables which are the six subscales of the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale. Independent variables were country and gender. Grade Point Average (GPA) and age were entered as covariates. Results showed that GPA and age had significant covariate effects on the combined dependent variables. There was no significant interaction effect of country by gender; however, after adjusting for the covariates, significant main effects for country and gender were found. The main effect of country was significant on worth of statistics, interpretation anxiety, fear of asking for help, and fear of statistics teachers on which American students scored higher than Turkish students. The main effect of gender was significant on interpretation anxiety and test/class anxiety where women scored higher than men.

Research Highlights
► The highest correlation was between worth of stat. and computational self-concept.
► GPA and age had significant covariate effects on the combined dependent variables.
► The American students scored higher than the Turkish students on most subscales.
► Effect of gender was significant on interpretation anxiety and test/class anxiety.