Children's Self-Efficacy Scale: Initial Psychometric Studies

Abstract

This article describes the development of a self-efficacy measure for elementary school children. A sample of 514 children, ages 8 to 11, enrolled in Grades 2 to 4 of public schools in Brazil was investigated. The scale included 78 descriptive items about academic situations, in which the child was required to respond on a 5-point scale, the frequency they felt capable of carrying out the proposed actions. An illustrative scale of fully shaded circles that gradually reduced to complete emptiness has also been used to visually display the categories of responses. The factorial analysis by principal axis and oblimin rotation suggested a two-factor structure explaining a variance of 40.54%. These factors were self-efficacy for studying and self-efficacy for academic performance. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from .80 to .83. The Rasch analysis indicates that only one item in the final scale did not fit the model.