Information seeking anxiety: effects of gender, level of study and age.
Erfanmanesh, Mohammadamin
Introduction:
Anxiety, a general term for several disorders that cause
nervousness, fear and apprehension, has been defined as an
"affective feeling of fear or uneasiness caused by apprehension or
anticipation of negative outcomes" (Burdick, 1995, p. 19). This
feeling has been identified as one of the most important barriers in
academic environments, which has caused different cognitive, affective,
and behavioral effects in students, and affected their educational
performance (Erfanmanesh, 2011). Scientific and educational environments
may give students the experience of frustration and anxiety called
"academic-related anxiety" (Onwuegbuzie, Jiao & Bostick,
2004). To date, several forms of academic-related anxiety have been
studied. However, frustration associated with the search for information
resources in libraries or information systems appear to be among the
most prevalent anxieties, because most of students are required to
conduct a research as part of completing their academic programme which
needs an extensive search and use of information resources (Kuhlthau,
1993; Jiao, Onwuegbuzie, 2002; Onwuegbuzie & Jiao, 2004;
Onwuegbuzie, Jiao, & Bostick, 2004). The intricacy of higher
education research, especially postgraduate research, requires the
identification and retrieval of information resources through different
sources. Finding a topic for research, writing a research proposal,
conducting a review of the related literature, and settling on the
research topic may cause or increase feelings of anxiety and frustration
in the vast majority of postgraduate students (Van Kampen, 2003;
Kohrman, 2003).
Fear and apprehension during the information search process (which
has been labeled information seeking anxiety in the current study) is
typically experienced when an individual is searching for information in
libraries or information systems or even when he is preparing or just
thinking to conduct search process. Anxiety experienced during the
information seeking process in libraries and information systems has
been documented by previous research (Mellon, 1986; Kuhlthau, 1988,
1993; Van Kampen, 2003; Onwuegbuzie, Jiao & Bostick, 2004;
Erfanmanesh, Abrizah & Noor, 2012). Dalrymple and Zweizig (1992)
found that some of the negative feelings like frustration, anxiety,
tension, and confusion were reported by participants during the
information seeking process using card and Online Public Access
Catalogue catalogs. Branch (2001) found that uncertainty, frustration,
doubt, and anxiety to be the common emotions while searching for
information resources using the CD-ROM encyclopedias among junior high
school students. In another research conducted among undergraduate
students by Young and Von Seggern (2001), anxiety has been reported as
the most prevalent negative feelings during the information seeking
process. Cheng (2004) indicated that negative feelings like anxiety were
indeed important factors involved in students' information seeking
process.
Consistent across aforementioned studies and other existing
literature is the finding that, the anxiety experienced during the
information seeking process is a real phenomenon which is prevalent
among students and may has "debilitating effects on students'
academic achievement" (Jiao, Onwuegbuzie & Waytowich, 2008, p.
949) and their research performance (Onwuegbuzie & Jiao, 2004). As
such, the aim of the current study is to deepen further our
understanding of this phenomenon by investigating effects of
postgraduate student's gender, level of study and age on various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct.
Review of the Literature:
An extensive review of the literature addresses gender, level of
study and age effects on academic-related anxiety was conducted.
Previous studies have had mixed results as to whether or not anxiety
experienced by students during information seeking process in libraries
or information systems differed between males and females. Some previous
studies have reported higher levels of anxiety in males than females.
Jacobson (1991), Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and Lichtenstein (1996), Jiao and
Onwuegbuzie (1997b) and Anwar, AlKandari and Al-Qallaf (2004) found
males to be experiencing higher levels of library anxiety than females.
In another study, Brosnan and Lee (1998) found males to be experiencing
higher levels of computer anxiety than did females. Another group of
research findings has reported higher levels of anxiety in females
compared to males. Shoham and Mizrachi (2001), Brown et al. (2004) and
Noor and Ansari (2011) found that female students reported to have
experienced higher levels of library anxiety than did male students. In
another study, Durndell and Haag (2002) reported female students to be
experiencing higher levels of computer anxiety than male students.
Consistent with this finding, Sigurdsson (1991), Okebukola (1993), Chua,
Chen and Wong (1999) and Todman (2000) have found higher computer
anxiety scores in females than in males. Some other studies reported no
gender differences in levels of anxiety. Neither Bostick (1992) nor Mech
and Brooks (1997) found gender differences in levels of library anxiety.
Additionally, Onwuegbuzie and Jiao (2000), Ben Omran (2001), Kohrman
(2002), Bowers (2010) and Lee's (2011) reported that gender was not
a statistically significant contributor to the library anxiety
construct. Moreover, Dyck and Smither (1994), Todman and Monaghan (1994)
and Scott and Rockwell (1997) found no relationship between computer
anxiety and gender.
With regard to the relationship between level of study and
academic-related anxiety, research findings have been mixed. Whereas
most of researchers have found that library anxiety declines linearly as
a function of year of study (Bostick, 1992; Mech & Brooks, 1995;
Jiao, Onwuegbuzie & Lichtenstein, 1996; Onwuegbuzie, 1997; Jiao
& Onwuegbuzie, 1997b; Onwuegbuzie, Jiao & Bostick, 2004), others
have reported no statistically significant differences between levels of
study with regard to library anxiety (Shoham & Mizrachi, 2001;
Bowers, 2010). Additionally some previous studies found that freshmen
experienced higher levels of library anxiety than upperclassmen (Jiao,
Onwuegbuzie, Lichtenstein, 1996; Jiao & Onwuegbuzie, 1997b).
Additionally, with regard to the relationship between age and
academic-related anxiety, previous studies had mixed results as to
whether or not academic-related anxiety differed based on a
student's age and whether anxiety was higher in older or younger
students. Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and Lichtenstein (1996), Jiao and
Onwuegbuzie (1997b), Shoham and Mizrachi (2001) and Kohrman (2002) found
an inverse correlation between library anxiety and age. Conversely,
Bostick (1992) and Lee (2011) found that students over fifty (50) years
old had higher levels of library anxiety than did younger students. In
some other studies, no age differences were found in levels of library
anxiety and Internet anxiety (Mech & Brooks, 1995; Ben Omran 2001).
Moreover, Parker (1990) and Yang, Mohamed and Beyerbach (1999) found no
significant differences for computer anxiety according to age.
Hypotheses:
The following four (4) research hypotheses guided data collection
and interpretation:
(a) There are statistically significant mean differences in various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct between male and
female postgraduate students.
(b) There are statistically significant mean differences in various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct between
master's level students and doctoral level students.
(c) There are statistically significant main and interaction
effects of gender and level of study on various dimensions of the
information seeking anxiety construct.
(d) There are statistically significant relationships between
various dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct and
postgraduate student's age.
These hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
Method:
Population and Sample:
The population of the study comprised eleven thousand (11000)
postgraduate students from various faculties at a research intensive
university in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Using the "Krejcie-Morgan
(1970)" sampling table and to obtain 95% confidence interval (5%
error rate), three hundred and seventy-five (n=375) postgraduate
students provided the sample for the current study. Applying a
stratified random sampling method, a sample was drawn from the targeted
population. Of the three hundred and seventy-five (375) participants,
one hundred and ninety (50.7%) students were males and one hundred and
eighty-five (49.3%) students were females. In terms of level of study,
two hundred and sixty-seven (71.2%) participants were master's
level students with the remaining one hundred and eight (28.8%)
participant being doctoral level students (See Table 1). Additionally,
ages of the participants ranged from twenty-two (22) to fifty-two (52)
years old, with a mean age of 30.27 years (SD=5.72).
Instrument:
The study subjects were required to fill up the Information Seeking
Anxiety Scale (ISAS) which was developed and validated by Erfanmanesh
(2012). This instrument contains thirty-eight (38) items, which are
measured using a 5-point Likert-type scale anchored by 1=strongly
disagree and 5=strongly agree. Scores of the whole scale, which range
from thirty-eight (38) to one hundred and ninety (190), were used as an
overall measure of the information seeking anxiety construct, with
higher scores on the scale representing greater degree of information
seeking anxiety. Additionally, a higher score on any sub-scale of the
Information Seeking Anxiety Scale represents higher anxiety as it
pertains to that particular sub-dimension. Like many psychological
instruments, the Information Seeking Anxiety Scale has both positively
and negatively worded statements in order to avoid inserting a bias into
the responses. In order to calculate the final score, the scores of
positive statements were reversed. The Information Seeking Anxiety Scale
comprised seven (7) sub-scales which collectively explained 50.152% of
the total variance of the instrument. The first factor of the
Information Seeking Anxiety Scale, barriers associated with libraries,
consisted of ten (10) statements which explained 24.423% of the total
variance. This factor represents some aspects of library including
policies and procedures, services, furniture, temperature, lighting,
library staff as well as library website and OPAC which contribute to
students' feeling of anxiety during information seeking process in
libraries. The second factor of the Information Seeking Anxiety Scale,
barriers associated with information resources, contained seven (7)
statements that were accounted for 7.315% of the total variance. This
factor represents some aspects of information resources including
quality of information resources, relevance of information resources,
novelty of information resources, familiarity with information resources
and information resources ease of use which contributes to
students' feeling of anxiety during the information seeking
process. Only three (3) items were loaded on the third dimension of the
Information Seeking Anxiety Scale, barriers associated with computers,
the Internet and electronic resources. These items explained 5.150% of
the total variance in information seeking anxiety. This sub-scale
includes statements related to using computers and the Internet for
seeking information resources as well as using electronic resources.
Six (6) items were loaded on the fourth dimension of the
Information Seeking Anxiety Scale, technological barriers, which
explained 4.181% of the total variance. This sub-scale includes
statements related to the influence of system malfunction, mechanical
issues, computer errors, computer damages and slow downloading of pages
and resources during the information seeking process in information
systems. Factor five, Affective barriers, comprised five (5) statements
and accounted for 3.430% of the total variance in information seeking
anxiety. Affective barriers dimension represents some statements
associated with negative feelings during the information seeking
process. Three (3) statements were loaded on the sixth dimension of the
Information Seeking Anxiety Scale, barriers associated with topic
identification, which explained 2.865% of the total variance. The
emphasis of this factor is on determining search terms, selecting
general topic and narrowing down the general topic to formulating a
focused topic in the process of information seeking. Finally, the
seventh dimension of the Information Seeking Anxiety Construct comprised
four (4) items and explained only 2.787% of the total variance. The
seventh factor includes statements associated with accessibility of
information resources. The scale was found to have satisfactory face,
content, and construct validity as well as internal reliability
(Erfanmanesh, 2012). Table 2 displays description of Information Seeking
Anxiety Scale's sub-dimensions.
Anxiety Scale
Data Analysis:
After the completed surveys were received, they were reviewed for
completeness and usability before being entered into the software for
analysis. Eight (8) questionnaires were eliminated from the study due to
partial completion, replaced with other questionnaires. Afterwards, the
data were input into the Predictive Analysis Software (PASW) for
analysis. In order to examine overall information seeking anxiety as
well as each of the seven (7) dimensions, mean score anxiety were
computed. A series of independent sample t-tests were employed to
determine whether any statistically significant mean differences exist
between various dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct
and (a) gender and (b) level of study (hypotheses one and two).
Additionally, a series of 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA were performed to test
main and interaction effects of gender and level of study on various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct (hypotheses
three). Furthermore, a series of Pearson Product Moment Correlation
tests were performed to test the relationships between student's
age and various sub-scales of the information seeking anxiety construct
(hypotheses four).
Findings:
Hypotheses (a): There are statistically significant mean
differences in various dimensions of the information seeking anxiety
construct between male and female postgraduate students.
A series of independent sample t-tests were employed to determine
if there were any gender differences in the mean anxiety of various
sub-dimensions of the information seeking anxiety. Female postgraduate
students were found to have experienced higher levels of information
seeking anxiety associated with five (5) out of seven (7) dimensions of
the ISAS than their male counterparts. Statistically significant
differences in anxiety levels were found between male and female
postgraduate students in the "barriers associated with information
resources" and "access barriers" dimensions, that is,
female students were found to experience statistically significantly
higher levels of information seeking anxiety with regard to these two
(2) dimensions than male students. The differences found between female
and male postgraduate students in mean anxiety values of other five (5)
sub-scales of the information seeking anxiety construct were not
statistically significant (See Table 3).
Hypotheses (b): There are statistically significant mean
differences in various dimensions of the information seeking anxiety
construct between master's level students and doctoral level
students.
In order to investigate whether any statistically significant mean
differences exist in the various dimensions of the information seeking
anxiety construct between master's level and doctoral level
students, a series of independent sample t-tests were employed. The
results of study revealed that master's level students experienced
higher level of information seeking associated with all seven (7)
dimensions of the ISAS, than their doctoral level counterparts.
Statistically significant differences in anxiety levels were found
between master's level and doctoral level students in the
"barriers associated with computers, the Internet and electronic
resources" and "affective barriers" dimensions, that is,
master's level students were found to experience statistically
significantly higher levels of information seeking anxiety related to
these two (2) dimensions than did doctoral level students. The
differences found in mean anxiety values of other five (5) sub-scales of
information seeking anxiety between master's level and doctoral
level students were not statistically significant (See Table 4).
Hypotheses (c): There are statistically significant main and
interaction effects of gender and level of study on various dimensions
of the information seeking anxiety construct.
The results of running a series of 2 x2 factorial ANOVA tests
revealed a statistically significant main effect for gender on
"barriers associated with information resources" dimension of
the information seeking anxiety. Additionally, the results revealed
statistically significant main effects for level of study on
"barriers associated with computers, the Internet and electronic
resources" and "affective barriers" dimensions of the
information seeking anxiety construct. The test for interaction of
gender and level of study on various dimensions of the information
seeking anxiety construct was not statistically significant. In other
words, there were no statistically significant differences in the effect
of gender on information seeking anxiety for students studying at the
master's level and those who studying at the doctoral level (See
Table 5).
Hypotheses (d): There are statistically significant relationships
between various dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct
and postgraduate student's age.
A series of Pearson product moment correlation tests were employed
to determine if there were any statistically significant relationships
between postgraduate student's age and mean anxiety of various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct. Conducting
Pearson product moment correlation tests between age and information
seeking anxiety sub-scales revealed:
1. A statistically significant but weak negative relationship
between age and "barriers associated with libraries" subscale
of the information seeking anxiety construct r=-0.135, p=0.009;
2. A statistically significant but weak negative relationship
between age and "barriers associated with information
resources" subscale of the information seeking anxiety construct
r=-0.123, p=0.017; and
3. A statistically significant but weak negative relationship
between age and "affective barriers" subscale of the
information seeking anxiety construct r=-0.103, p=0.047.
No statistically significant relationships were found between
postgraduate student's age and information seeking anxiety
associated with the other four (4) sub-scales of the Information Seeking
Anxiety Scale (See Table 6).
Discussion:
The purpose of the study was to find out whether antecedent
variables such as gender, level of study and age would affect the seven
(7) dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct. Three types
of inferential analytic techniques were employed to test four (4)
non-directional hypotheses: the independent sample t-test, 2 x 2
factorial ANOVA and Pearson product moment correlation tests. According
to the results of the study, gender has been found to have effect on the
information seeking anxiety construct. The results of running an
independent sample t-test revealed that female students were found to
have reported statistically significantly higher levels of information
seeking anxiety related to "barriers associated with information
resources" and "access barriers" dimensions than did male
students. The finding that female students were found to have
experienced statistically significantly higher levels of information
seeking anxiety stemming from "barriers associated with information
resources" than male students is consistent with the finding of
Shoham and Mizrachi (2001) who found that females to be experiencing
higher levels of library anxiety associated with "resources
barriers" dimension than did male students. Additionally,
Onwuegbuzie (1997) found resources anxiety to be one of the most
prevalent dimensions of library anxiety. Accordingly, students who were
unable to obtain required information resources found in a library
search, were more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety than
others.
Moreover, the results of running a 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA to test
main and interaction effects of gender and level of study on various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct revealed gender
to be having main effects on the information seeking anxiety dimension
"barriers associated with information resources". This finding
indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in
information seeking anxiety by gender. This result is in contrast to
that of Bostick (1992), Mech and Brooks (1995), Onwuegbuzie and Jiao
(2000), Ben Omran (2001) and Kohrman (2002) who found no gender
differences in levels of library anxiety.
The finding that female postgraduate students reported to have
experienced statistically significantly higher levels of information
seeking anxiety associated with two (2) out of seven (7) sub-dimensions,
might be explained by the fact that female sample of the study were
found to have used the university library less frequently than their
male counterparts. An earlier studies by Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and
Lichtenstein (1996), Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (1997b) and Onwuegbuzie, Jiao
and Bostick (2004) found a negative relationship between frequency of
library use and levels of library anxiety. Additionally, Onwuegbuzie,
Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (2004) found that "high anxious students are
approximately two-and-a-half times less likely to visit the library than
the low anxious students".
The results of running an independent sample t-test revealed that
level of study had effect on information seeking anxiety construct. In
other words, master's level students were found to experience
statistically significantly higher levels of information seeking anxiety
related to "barriers associated with computers, the Internet and
electronic resources" and "affective barriers" dimensions
than did doctoral level students. The results of running a 2 x 2
factorial ANOVA to test main and interaction effects of gender and level
of study on various dimensions of the information seeking anxiety
construct revealed the same results. This indicated that there was a
statistically significant difference in information seeking anxiety by
level of study. This finding somewhat supports that of Bostick (1992),
Mech and Brooks (1995), Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and Lichtenstein (1996),
Onwuegbuzie (1997) and Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (1997b) who found level of
study has an effect on various dimensions of the library anxiety
construct.
The finding that doctoral level students reported to have
experienced lower levels of information seeking anxiety associate with
all seven (7) dimensions of the information seeking anxiety than did
their master's level counterparts, might be explained by the fact
that doctoral level students have more experience in conducting
postgraduate level research. The explanation for this could be that
most, if not all, of doctoral level students have conducted a
postgraduate level research in their master's level study. They
have experience of searching topics for research, seeking for related
information resources, conducting a literature review, writing a
research proposal and eventually settling on the dissertation topic.
Conversely, although master's level students have used the library
and online resources for research purposes in their undergraduate level
study, they have probably never needed to use as many resources and
services as they may need at the master's level research. The
intricacy of graduate level research requires searching beyond the
Internet and information systems for resources, and students find the
need to learn research skills, some truly for the first time (Kohrman,
2002). Consequently, many of the master's level students who are
unprepared for conducting postgraduate-level research face high levels
of anxiety. These students discover their research and information
seeking skills are inadequate for conducting a postgraduate level
research and that's why they show evidence of high levels of
information seeking anxiety associated with "affective
barriers" dimension.
Moreover, a possible explanation for the finding that doctoral
level students were reported to have experienced statistically
significantly lower levels of information seeking anxiety related to
"barriers associated with computers" than did master's
level students, might be that doctoral students may have on average more
experience and use of computers and the Internet than master's
level students. Consistent with this explanation, Bessiere et al. (2002)
found that people with higher levels of experience with computing were
the least often frustrated and anxious by the Internet. Additionally,
Ben Omran (2001) found a relationship between Internet experience and
Internet anxiety.
The results of running a Pearson product moment correlation test
revealed statistically significant but weak negative relationships
between age and "barriers associated with libraries",
"barriers associated with information resources" and
"affective barriers" dimensions of the information seeking
anxiety. Accordingly, as the postgraduate student's age increased,
levels of information seeking anxiety related to three (3)
aforementioned dimensions decreased. The finding that older students
were reported to experienced less anxiety with regard to three (3)
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct than did younger
students, was in contrast to some previous studies which suggested that
older people may have more difficulty in using computer and information
technologies to perform information search and retrieval tasks than
younger people (Rousseau et al., 1998; Czaja et al., 2001). Westerman et
al. (1995) found that older students were slower than the younger
students in retrieving information resources. In another study, Stronge,
Rogers and Fisk (2006) found that older students were less successful
and had more difficulty than younger students when searching for
information on the web. Moreover, Chin, Fu and Kannampallil (2009)
reported that older students performed worse in web search tasks than
did younger students.
A possible explanation for the finding that older students were
reported to have experienced lower levels of information seeking anxiety
related to "barriers associated with libraries" than did
younger students, is that these students accumulated more experience of
information seeking in libraries as they became older which decreased
their information seeking anxiety levels. Additionally, Gorman (1984),
Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and Lichtenstein (1996) and Jiao and Onwuegbuzie
(1997a) found a positive relationship between age and frequency of
library visit. This relationship also may reflect library experience,
since a positive relationship was also found to exist between age and
the number of library instruction courses taken (Jiao & Onwuegbuzie,
1997a). Dholakia and Bagozzi (2001) found that individuals with minimal
prior knowledge and experience are likely to exhibit high levels of
frustration during information search tasks. Additionally Coupey et al.
(1998) found that experienced students perform more efficient
information searches because they know what is important and useful and
where to get it. However, postgraduate student's age was not
statistically significantly correlated with frequency of library use and
frequency on the Internet use. Finally, the finding that older students
were reported to have experienced lower levels of information seeking
anxiety related to "barriers associated with information
resources" than did their younger counterparts, might be explained
by the finding of Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (1997a) who reported that older
students utilize the library resources more extensively than younger
students.
Conclusion:
The study employed the Information Seeking Anxiety Scale in order
to examine the effects of gender, level of study and age on various
dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct. The results of
the study revealed that gender has statistically significant effect on
two (2) dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct.
Additionally, level of study was an antecedent of the information
seeking anxiety construct. However, the test for interaction of gender
and level of study on various dimensions of the information seeking
anxiety construct was not statistically significant. In other words,
there were no statistically significant differences in the effect of
gender on information seeking anxiety for students studying at the
master's level and those who studying at the doctoral level.
Finally, age was found to have statistically significant effect on three
(3) dimensions of the information seeking anxiety construct. Future
studies should investigate the nature of the relationship between levels
of information seeking anxiety and other personal, educational, and
psychological variables.
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Table 1: Participant's Gender and Level of Study Crosstabulation
Level of
Study
Master PhD Total
Gender Female Count 137 48 185
% within Level 74.1% 25.9% 100.0%
% within Gender 51.3% 44.4% 49.3%
% of Total 36.5% 12.8% 49.3%
Male Count 130 60 190
% within Level 68.4% 31.6% 100.0%
% within Gender 48.7% 55.6% 50.7%
% of Total 34.7% 16.0% 50.7%
Total Count 267 108 375
% within Level 71.2% 28.8% 100.0%
% within Gender 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
% of Total 71.2% 28.8% 100.0%
Table 2: Description of Information Seeking Anxiety
Scale's sub-dimensions
Factor No. of Factor % of
Items Loadings Variance
Range
Barriers Assoc. with Libraries 10 0.441-0.718 24.423
Barriers Assoc. with 7 0.452-0.698 7.315
Information Resources
Barriers Assoc. with 3 0.442-0.752 5.150
Computers, the Internet and
Electronic Resources
Technological Barriers 6 0.421-0.745 4.181
Affective Barriers 5 0.525-0.679 3.430
Barriers Assoc. with 3 0.642-0.825 2.865
Topic Identification
Access Barrier 4 0.418-0.774 2.787
Information Seeking 38 0.418-0.825 50.152
Anxiety Scale
Factor Eigenvalues Cronbach's
alpha
Barriers Assoc. with Libraries 11.479 0.832
Barriers Assoc. with 3.438 0.783
Information Resources
Barriers Assoc. with 2.421 0.745
Computers, the Internet and
Electronic Resources
Technological Barriers 1.965 0.784
Affective Barriers 1.612 0.794
Barriers Assoc. with 1.347 0.763
Topic Identification
Access Barrier 1.310 0.730
Information Seeking - 0.917
Anxiety Scale
Data Analysis:
Table 3: Means and Standard Deviations for Information
Seeking Anxiety Dimensions as a Function of Gender
Male
Sub-scales Mean SD
Barriers Associated with Libraries 23.372 6.615
Barriers Associated with Information 20.911 4.108
Resources
Barriers Associated with Computers, 7.275 2.912
the Internet and Electronic Resources
Technological Barriers 14.472 4.110
Affective Barriers 12.086 3.349
Barriers Associated with Topic 7.556 2.089
Identification
Access Barriers 11.181 2.715
Female
Sub-scales Mean SD P value
Barriers Associated with Libraries 23.147 5.959 0.730
Barriers Associated with Information 22.188 4.109 0.003 *
Resources
Barriers Associated with Computers, 7.013 2.423 0.346
the Internet and Electronic Resources
Technological Barriers 15.168 4.008 0.098
Affective Barriers 12.610 3.555 0.142
Barriers Associated with Topic 7.565 2.198 0.998
Identification
Access Barriers 11.845 2.475 0.014 *
* p<0.05
Table 4: Means and Standard Deviations for Information
Seeking Anxiety Dimensions as a Function of Level of Study
Master
Sub-scales Mean SD
Barriers Associated with Libraries 23.645 6.301
Barriers Associated with Information 21.792 4.196
Resources
Barriers Associated with Computers, 7.345 2.631
the Internet and Electronic Resources
Technological Barriers 15.016 3.890
Affective Barriers 12.707 3.415
Barriers Associated with Topic 7.665 2.139
Identification
Access Barriers 11.570 2.603
PhD
Sub-scales Mean SD P value
Barriers Associated with Libraries 22.310 6.198 0.063
Barriers Associated with Information 20.919 3.996 0.065
Resources
Barriers Associated with Computers, 6.652 2.755 0.023 *
the Internet and Electronic Resources
Technological Barriers 14.319 4.464 0.133
Affective Barriers 11.448 3.415 0.001 *
Barriers Associated with Topic 7.287 2.131 0.121
Identification
Access Barriers 11.358 2.660 0.480
* p<0.05
Table 5: Main and Interaction Effects of Gender and Level
of Study on "Barriers Associated with Information Resources"
and "Barriers Associated with Computers" and
"Affective Barriers" Dimension
Barriers Assoc. with df MS F Sig.
Information Resources
Main Effect of Gender 1 140.886 8.370 0.004 *
Main Effect of Level of Study 1 44.910 2.668 0.103
Gender * Level of Study 1 6.687 0.397 0.529
Within-Cells Error 371 16.831
Barriers Assoc. with Computers df MS F Sig.
Main Effect of Gender 1 6.078 0.852 0.357
Main Effect of Level of Study 1 38.437 5.390 0.021 *
Gender * Level of Study 1 .154 0.022 0.883
Within-Cells Error 371 7.131
Affective Barriers df MS F Sig.
Main Effect of Gender 1 11.159 0.956 0.329
Main Effect of Level of Study 1 117.288 10.052 0.002 *
Gender * Level of Study 1 2.185 0.187 0.665
Within-Cells Error 371 11.668
* p< 0.05
Table 6: Correlation between Age and Seven Dimensions
of the Information Seeking Anxiety Scale
Correlations
Age
Barriers Associated with Libraries Pearson Correlation -0.135 *
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.009
N 375
Barriers Associated with Information Pearson Correlation -0.123 **
Resources Sig. (2-tailed) 0.017
N 375
Barriers Associated with Computers, Pearson Correlation -0.071
The Internet and Electronic Sig. (2-tailed) 0.169
Resources N 375
Technological Barriers Pearson Correlation -0.088
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.090
N 375
Affective Barriers Pearson Correlation -0.103 **
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.047
N 375
Barriers Associated with Topic Pearson Correlation -0.100
Identification Sig. (2-tailed) 0.054
N 375
Access Barriers Pearson Correlation -0.089
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.086
N 375
* Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
** Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
