Abstract
Academic self-efficacy beliefs influence students’ academic and career choices, as well as motivational factors and learning strategies promoting effective academic success. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the academic self-efficacy of university students in comparison to students at other levels. Furthermore, extant measures present several limitations. The first aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid scale assessing university students’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing academic tasks. The second aim was to investigate differences in academic self-efficacy due to gender, years of enrollment, and student status. The study involved 831 students (age M = 21.09 years; SD = 1.34 years; 66.3% women) enrolled in undergraduate programs. Indicators of academic experiences and performance (i.e., number of exams passed and average exam rating) were collected. A new scale measuring students’ academic self-efficacy beliefs was administered. Results from a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis were consistently supported by findings from a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multigroup CFA supported the presence of measurement invariance. Analyses revealed that the new scale has eight factors: “Planning Academic Activities,” “Learning Strategies,” “Information Retrieval,” “Working in Groups,” “Management of Relationships with Teachers,” “Managing Lessons,” “Stress Management,” and “Thesis Work.” Self-efficacy dimensions showed significant relations with academic experiences and students’ performance indicators, as well as differences due to gender, years of enrollment, and student status. Findings are discussed in terms of practical implications for the implementation of intervention programs aimed at fostering self-efficacy beliefs and academic success.
Highlights
Perceived self-efficacy refers to personal beliefs on the ability to maintain established goals and perform successful actions (Bandura, 1997), in difficult moments (McGeown et al, 2014)
We explored the internal consistency of the scale and examined the associations of selfefficacy factors with indicators of academic experiences and students’ performance, namely the number of exams passed and average exam rating
The Bartlett’s sphericity test (χ2 = 3628.64, p < 0.001) and the Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO) = 0.85 have ensured that the correlation matrix could be subjected to factor analysis
Summary
Perceived self-efficacy refers to personal beliefs on the ability to maintain established goals and perform successful actions (Bandura, 1997), in difficult moments (McGeown et al, 2014). Self-efficacy could concern a general or a specific belief: the first refers to a general perceived ability to face stressful conditions, while the second refers to a particular context or. Effective functioning requires two components, skills and efficacy beliefs to execute them appropriately, that act upon one another in a reciprocal fashion. Bandura referred this as a “reciprocal causation” in which the functioning of one component depends, in part, upon the functioning of the other (Bandura, 1997). Bandura (1997) declared that people derive information to evaluate efficacy beliefs from four primary sources: (1) mastery experiences; (2) vicarious experiences; (3) forms of persuasion, both verbal and otherwise; and (4) “physiological and affective states from which people partly judge their capableness, strength, and vulnerability to dysfunction.” self-efficacy beliefs foster positive social and supportive relationships (Bandura et al, 1996) that may help to reduce anxiety and to improve stress management (Mayer et al, 2002), especially in challenging contexts, such as the academic environment
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