Statistics anxiety among African American graduate students: An affective filter?

The recruitment and retention of African Americans in graduate schools remains a significant problem. Statistics anxiety has been found to be prevalent among graduate students, being implicated both as a barrier to success in quantitative courses and a barrier to completion of theses and dissertations. To date, it is unclear whether African American graduate students experience higher levels of statistics anxiety. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare levels of statistics anxiety between African American and Caucasian American graduate students. A series of t tests revealed that the African American graduate students had higher levels of statistics anxiety than did their Caucasian American counterparts. Recommendations for future research are provided. Also, implications for educators responsible for recruiting and retaining African American graduate students are discussed.