Lecturer Support, Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, and Statistics Anxiety in Undergraduate Students

• Published in: Open education studies Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 743 - 756
• Main Authors: Jatnika, Ratna, Abidin, Fitri Ariyanti, Lubis, Fitriani Yustikasari, Putri, Dwi Marisa, Hamdanie, Ditha Fadhillah Putri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 13.06.2025
• Subjects: basic psychological needs satisfaction; lecturer support; statistics anxiety; undergraduate students
• ISSN: 2544-7831; 2544-7831
• DOI: 10.1515/edu-2025-0080

Statistics anxiety is a prevalent form of anxiety experienced by students during statistics lectures or when conducting statistical analysis. This anxiety negatively impacts their performance and enjoyment of the subject. The present study investigates the relationship between lecturer support and undergraduate students’ statistics anxiety, and whether the satisfaction of basic psychological needs mediates the relationship. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey involving 382 students from 11 universities (105 male, 277 female) aged 17–27 years ( = 19.48, SD = 1.37). We used the Indonesian version of the statistics anxiety measure, Teacher Support as Social Context Short-Form, and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale. Our findings indicate that lecturer support is negatively associated with statistics anxiety among undergraduate students. Moreover, undergraduate students’ satisfaction with basic psychological needs partially mediates this relationship. These results highlight statistics lecturers’ crucial role in exhibiting involvement, structure, and autonomy support to reduce students’ statistics anxiety.