MEASURING STATISTICS ATTITUDES: STRUCTURE OF THE SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TOWARD STATISTICS (SATS-36)

Although a number of instruments for assessing attitudes toward statistics have been developed, several questions with regard to the structure and item functioning remain unresolved. In this study, the structure of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36), a widely used questionnaire to measure six aspects of students’ attitudes toward statistics, is investigated. This study addresses the previously unexplored issue of individual item functioning. Based on confirmatory factor analysis using individual items, the results suggest that the SATS-36 can be improved by removing some poorly functioning items and that depending on the goals of a specific study either six subscales could be used or three of them (Affect, Cognitive Competence, and Difficulty) can be combined into one subscale without losing much information. First published May 2011 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives

[1]  A. Satorra,et al.  Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. , 1994 .

[2]  Joseph J. Stevens,et al.  The Development and Validation of the Survey of Antitudes toward Statistics , 1995 .

[3]  H. Acquah.  Comparison of Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) in selection of an asymmetric price relationship , 2010 .

[4]  Kenneth S. Shultz,et al.  Evidence of Reliability and Validity for Wise's Attitude toward Statistics Scale , 1998 .

[5]  Lisa J. Carnell.  The Effect of a Student-Designed Data Collection Project on Attitudes Toward Statistics , 2008 .

[6]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[7]  R. MacCallum,et al.  Model modifications in covariance structure analysis: the problem of capitalization on chance. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[8]  Joseph J. Stevens,et al.  Survey of attitudes toward statistics: Factor structure and factorial invariance for women and men , 1997 .

[9]  Paula M. Popovich,et al.  Attitudes toward Statistics: An Evaluation of Multiple Measures , 1988 .

[10]  Iddo Gal,et al.  The Role of Beliefs and Attitudes in Learning Statistics: Towards an Assessment Framework , 1994 .

[11]  K. Jöreskog,et al.  Structural Equation Modeling with Ordinal Variables using LISREL , 2004 .

[12]  A. Boomsma,et al.  The robustness of LISREL modeling revisted. , 2001 .

[13]  A. Panter,et al.  Writing about structural equation models. , 1995 .

[14]  Patricia B. Elmore,et al.  The Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics Scale: A Construct Validity Study , 2005 .

[15]  D. Roberts,et al.  Reliability and Validity of a Statistics Attitude Survey , 1980 .

[16]  R. Kirk Steinhorst,et al.  Using Small Groups to Promote Active Learning in the Introductory Statistics Course: A Report from the Field , 1995 .

[17]  Anne Boomsma,et al.  Structural equation models: Present and Future. A Festschrift in honor of Karl Jöreskog. , 2001 .

[18]  J. Leong.  High School Students' Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Statistics in a Service-Learning-Based Statistics Course , 2007 .

[19]  Dirk T. Tempelaar,et al.  A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL ANALYZING THE RELATIONSHIP OF STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD STATISTICS, PRIOR REASONING ABILITIES AND COURSE PERFORMANCE , 2007 .

[20]  D. Bandalos.  The Effects of Item Parceling on Goodness-of-Fit and Parameter Estimate Bias in Structural Equation Modeling , 2002 .

[21]  Iddo Gal,et al.  4. Monitoring Attitudes and Beliefs in Statistics Education , 2003 .

[22]  B. Byrne.  A Primer of Lisrel: Basic Applications and Programming for Confirmatory Factor Analytic Models , 1989 .

[23]  R. Brislin.  Back-Translation for Cross-Cultural Research , 1970 .

[24]  A. Raftery.  Bayesian Model Selection in Social Research , 1995 .

[25]  Y Kano,et al.  Can test statistics in covariance structure analysis be trusted? , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[26]  O. John,et al.  The importance of being valid: Reliability and the process of construct validation. , 2007 .

[27]  Gregory Schraw,et al.  Self-efficacy beliefs in college statistics courses. , 2003 .

[28]  Douglas B. McLeod,et al.  Research on affect in mathematics education: A reconceptualization. , 1992 .

[29]  Caterina Primi,et al.  Assessing statistics attitudes among college students: Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Survey of Attitudes toward Statistics (SATS) , 2009 .

[30]  H. Marsh,et al.  The use of item parcels in structural equation modelling: non-normal data and small sample sizes. , 2004, The British journal of mathematical and statistical psychology.

[31]  Pannee Suanpang,et al.  Student Attitudes to Learning Business Statistics: Comparison of Online and Traditional Methods , 2004, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[32]  T. Little,et al.  To Parcel or Not to Parcel: Exploring the Question, Weighing the Merits , 2002 .

[33]  Albert Satorra,et al.  A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis , 1999 .

[34]  Fadia Nasser,et al.  A Monte Carlo Study Investigating the Impact of Item Parceling on Measures of Fit in Confirmatory Factor Analysis , 2003 .

[35]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[36]  S. Finney,et al.  Item parceling issues in structural equation modeling , 2001 .

[37]  Sterling C. Hilton,et al.  Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics: Factor Structure Invariance by Gender and by Administration Time , 2004 .

[38]  Steven L. Wise,et al.  The Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Attitudes toward Statistics , 1985 .

[39]  C. Heckler.  A Step-by-Step Approach to Using the SAS™ System for Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling , 1996 .

[40]  Jamie D. Mills.  Students' Attitudes toward Statistics: Implications for the Future , 2004 .

[41]  D. Roberts,et al.  Validity of a Statistics Attitude Survey: A Follow-Up Study , 1982 .

[42]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Structural equation modeling with ordinal variables , 1994 .

[43]  J. S. Long,et al.  Testing Structural Equation Models , 1993 .

[44]  Qun Liu,et al.  Comparison of Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) in selection of stock–recruitment relationships , 2006 .

[45]  D. Flora,et al.  An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. , 2004, Psychological methods.