Assessing math attitude through the Attitude Toward Mathematics Inventory – Short Form in introductory statistics course students

Math attitude refers to emotional responses, beliefs, and behaviors towards mathematics. Several studies mea- sured the relation with math learning and related variables, but very few with statistics learning. To better investigate this relation has become increasingly relevant to have a measure that ensuring multidimensionality and shortness. The aim of the present paper was to confirm the factor structure of the Lin and Huang (2014)'s ATMI - Short Form (ATMI - SF) when administered to Italian college students attending introductory statistics course, and to test its measurement invariance applying a multigroup confirmatory analysis. We also assessed the reliability and the incremental validity of the ATMI - SF by verifying whether it predicted statistics achievement over and above the effect of math knowledge. The overall findings provide that ATMI - SF is a reliable and valid measure to assess math attitude among college students who attend introductory statistics courses in non- mathematical courses.