Instructor immediacy and statistics anxiety in social work undergraduate students

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between statistics anxiety and instructor immediacy among 113 social work undergraduate students enrolled in a Social Work Research method course at a large, fully accredited publicly funded university. It is hypothesized that students who report receiving higher immediacy would report lower ratings of statistics anxiety. Data were collected through the use of a survey questionnaire. Statistics anxiety was measured with the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale, and instructor immediacy was assessed with the Instructor Immediacy Scale. Respondents ranged in age from 20 to 54 years (Mean age = 25.23, SD = 6.86), of whom 82.3% were female. Canonical correlations analysis yielded two functions with squared canonical correlations of () of .349 and .026 for each successive function. The full model was statistically significant using the Wilks’ λ = .633 criterion, F (12, 210) = 4.483, p = .001, accounting for 36.7% of the shared variance between instructor immediacy variables and the statistics anxiety dimensions. Increased use of immediacy by an instructor can help to reduce students’ levels of statistics anxiety. Knowledge of the particular dimensions of statistics anxiety can enable instructors to implement the most effective intervention for the reduction of such anxiety.

Keywords:

• Instructor immediacy
• statistics anxiety
• social work