Can attitudes towards statistics mediate the relationship between math anxiety and statistics anxiety? A multiple mediation model with Italian university students

Literature underlines the need to more deeply investigate the relationship between mathematics anxiety (MA) and statistics anxiety (SA), especially in terms of possible mediation/moderation analyses. In this study, conducted with 221 Psychology students (70% females; mean age = 20.99; SD = 4.56), we examined the extent to which high levels of MA make students more likely to have higher levels of SA through attitudes towards statistics, intended as a multidimensional concept. To test the hypothesis, we developed a model with multiple parallel mediators where MA was the independent variable; Affect towards statistics and perceived statistics Difficulty were the mediators; and SA was the dependent variable. Results revealed a significant positive indirect effect of MA on SA through Affect and Difficulty. More specifically, greater MA appears to be negatively related to Affect and Difficulty, which in turn are negatively related to SA.