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. 2022 Oct 12:13:1011278.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1011278. eCollection 2022.

Reducing the influence of perfectionism and statistics anxiety on college student performance in statistics courses

Rongjun Wu  1 , Juan Chen  2 , Qi Li  1 , Hongcang Zhou  3
Affiliations

Reducing the influence of perfectionism and statistics anxiety on college student performance in statistics courses

Rongjun Wu et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The influence of perfectionism and statistics anxiety on academic performance (AP) in statistics courses was investigated using a multidimensional perfectionism scale and a statistics anxiety rating scale. For perfectionism, the factor of personal standards (PS) had a significant direct positive effect on AP, while the factor of parental expectations (PE) was significantly negatively correlated with AP. Other factors (concern over mistakes, organization, and doubts about actions) did not significantly influence AP. For statistics anxiety, the two factors (test and class anxiety and computation self-concept) significantly impaired AP. These results indicated a need for innovation in classroom instruction and the reform of statistics course content and presentation to reduce statistics anxiety and improve PS. There is also a need to ensure that students better internalize PE and to revise instructional design techniques to enhance students' independent learning ability.

Keywords: academic performance; multidimensional perfectionism scale; personal standards; statistics anxiety; teaching innovation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Complete SEM-FMPS-I (revised Chinese) model structure showing the relationships between factors of perfectionism and academic performance. CM, concern over mistakes; DA, doubts about actions; PE, parental expectations; PS, personal standards; OR, organization; AP, academic performance in statistics courses.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Final (simplified) model, SEM-FMPS-II, of the factors of perfectionism and their relationships with academic performance. PE, parental expectations; PS, personal standards; AP, academic performance in statistics courses.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The structure of the SEM-SA model relating statistics anxiety with the two factors test and class anxiety (TCA) and fear of asking for help (FAH) and their relationship with academic performance (AP) in statistics courses.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The structure of the SEM-SP model relating self-perception with the three factors worth of statistics (WS), fear of statistics teachers (FST) and computation self-concept (CS) and their relationship with academic performance in statistics courses (AP).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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