Hierarchical Structure of Self-Efficacy in Terms of Generality Levels and Its Relations to Academic Performance: General, Academic, Domain-Specific, and Subject-Specific Self-Efficacy.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is twofold: One is to provide empirical evidence for the hierarchical structure of self-efficacy in terms of generality levels and the other is to investigate the relative potency of context-specific self-efficacy, i.e., academic self-efficacy in predicting academic performance. To accomplish these goals, the present study focuses on the structural relationships of academic self-efficacy in five school subjects, which allows us to consider four generality levels, i.e., general, academic, domain-specific, and subject-specific levels of students' self-efficacy. High school students responded to general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, and subject-specific self-efficacy scales. Students' end-of-year achievement scores were used as a predicted variable. To examine the predictive power of academic self-efficacy expectation and hierarchical structural relationships of differing levels of generality of self-efficacy, covariance structural modeling was used. The results of the present study revealed the hierarchical structure of general, academic, and subject-specific self-efficacy; and their predictability for academic achievement.