Individual differences in statistics anxiety: the roles of perfectionism, procrastination and trait anxiety

Recent research detected small but significant associations between perfectionism and statistics anxiety [Onwuegbuzie, A., & Daley, C. (1999). Perfectionism and statistics anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 1089–1102]. The current study re-examined this relationship whilst simultaneously controlling for trait anxiety and procrastination, variables which are known to be associated with perfectionism and which also have a likely association with statistics anxiety. Measures of all four constructs were obtained by questionnaire from a sample of 93 students, and multiple regression analyses were employed. Statistics anxiety constituted the criterion variable whilst perfectionism, trait anxiety and procrastination were regarded as predictor variables. Results indicated very modest links between inter-personal perfectionism and components of statistics anxiety, whereas intra-personal perfectionism, trait anxiety and procrastination were each found to have good predictive utility. It was concluded that aspects of ego-involvement such as fear of failure and evaluation concern, which are thought to pervade each of these predictors, may be responsible for statistics anxiety.