The protective role of intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation strategies against procrastination and statistics anxiety

Abstract

Statistics anxiety (SA) is a common problem among Health and Social Science students, and it has negative consequences for their performance. Dispositional antecedents of SA, such as intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and some specific individual behaviors, have been widely studied; however, the interplay between these variables in explaining SA has hardly been explored. This study aimed to examine the mediating role of individual behaviors (learning strategies and procrastination) in the effect of self-efficacy and internal motivation on SA. A sample of 194 Social and Health Science students filled in a questionnaire on statistics anxiety, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, learning strategies, and procrastination. Serial and parallel multiple mediator analyses showed that the effect of intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy on SA was mediated by the use of self-regulation learning strategies and procrastination. This study highlights the role of dispositional antecedents of SA and, specifically, the importance of promoting self-regulation learning strategies rather than cognitive learning strategies to minimize procrastination and reduce SA.