Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy in High School Students

The mediating effect of math self-efficacy on the relationship between parenting style and math anxiety

The present study aims to investigate the associations among math self-efficacy, parenting style, and math anxiety in primary school children. The sample comprised 400 participants, aged between 10 and 11 years old, from an elementary school in China. Participants completed three self-reported questionnaires on math anxiety, parenting styles and math self-efficacy. The results revealed that rejection was strongly and positively correlated with math anxiety, while emotional warmth was negatively related to math anxiety. Interestingly, math anxiety was found to be related to rejection, with math self-efficacy playing a mediating role in this relationship. Conversely, math self-efficacy played a mediating role in the relationship between parenting styles and math anxiety, while over protection exhibited no significant correlation with math anxiety. The study also showed that gender differences existed in the level of math anxiety and math self-efficacy, with boys exhibiting lower math anxiety and higher math self-efficacy than girls. These results provide important insights into the development and treatment of math anxiety in primary school children. Specifically, parents and educators should focus on enhancing children's math self-efficacy beliefs, while adopting a parenting style characterized by emotional warmth and low levels of rejection.

SCCT and Underrepresented Populations in STEM Fields

The authors review research that has used social cognitive career theory as a frame to investigate factors that may explain science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) choices and work decisions for women and racial–ethnic minorities, as well as barriers to their entry to STEM careers. The research is reviewed by age-groups. Most of this research has focused on factors associated with early choices (e.g., in high school and younger), but more recent work has focused on choices in college and in the workplace, particularly for women. The authors conclude with a critique and call for more research.

Applications of Self-Efficacy Theory to the Career Assessment of Women

This article reviews the applicability of self-efficacy theory to the career assessment of women. The article begins by summarizing Bandura's self-efficacy theory, including its particular relevance to women's career development. Next, the domains of occupational, scientific—technical, and mathematics self-efficacy are reviewed, followed by those represented by Holland's RIASEC model and Rooney and Osipow's (1992; Osipow, Temple, & Rooney, 1993) Task-Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale (TSOSS). The article concludes with a review of work on the relationship of self-efficacy to vocational interests and on counseling implications of self-efficacy theory.

Development and Initial Validation of a Measure of Academic Hardiness

Drawing upon hardiness theory and research on academic motivation we developed and administered a measure of academic hardiness to a large sample of high school students. In line with theory- and research-derived expectations, results of both principal axis factor analyses (PAF) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) yielded support for a three-factor model of the construct. Supplemental analyses indicated that, after controlling for general academic self-concept, the challenge subscale of our novel measure differentiated students who pursued more difficult academic coursework and educational plans from those who did not.

Cognitive Assessment of the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy: A Thought-Listing Analysis

This study explored the sources of information that students employ in appraising their mathematics self-efficacy. Responding to a thought-listing questionnaire, 103 college students cited personal performance experiences (e.g., past successes) as the most common, and most influential, basis for their efficacy beliefs. Other theory- derived efficacy sources (e.g., vicarious learning) were mentioned much less often. Several response categories emerged, such as interest and effort considerations, that may reflect the heuristics that students enlist to estimate their academic capabilities under varying motivational or contextual conditions. Few gender differences appeared in the efficacy source listings, though women tended to cite physiological reactions and teaching quality considerations more often than did men. These findings offer a methodological complement to research using more traditional, psychometric measures of the sources of self-efficacy. Implications for research, as well as for educational and career interventions, are discussed.

Development and Evaluation of the Revised Academic Hardiness Scale

Researchers have a long-standing interest in better understanding why some students avoid challenging academic course work at the risk of harming their academic standing, whereas others are willing to pursue these types of challenges. The Academic Hardiness Scale (AHS) was developed to better understand characteristics that may differentiate these two types of students. Although preliminary findings provided support for the initial version of the AHS, the measure exhibited only good to marginal coefficient alphas and limited discriminant validity. The present investigation represents the second phase of measurement development for the AHS. The study was designed to evaluate the factor structure; internal consistency reliability; discriminant, convergent, and concurrent validity; and testretest reliability of the Revised Academic Hardiness Scale (RAHS). Results from this study identified a three-component measure that has very good basic psychometric properties. The RAHS is a significant improvement over its parent instrument.

Outcome Expectations: Looking to the Past and Potential Future

This article focuses on the construct of outcome expectations. It is argued that the construct has received relatively little attention in the vocational literature. The authors define outcome expectations, trace the precursors to the construct, provide a critique of the operationalization of the construct, and propose recommendations for future research.

Self-Efficacy Theory as a Basis for Career Assessment

This article reviews the basic postulates of self-efficacy theory and describes its applications to the study of career choice and development. Following a discussion of issues involved in the measurement of perceived self-efficacy with respect to domains of career behavior, measurement of and research on occupational self-efficacy, mathematics self-efficacy, self-efficacy with respect to basic domains of activity, and career decision self-efficacy are reviewed. The relationship of self-efficacy to vocational interests and the particular relevance of the theory to the career development of women and members of racial/ethnic minority groups are also discussed.

The School Counselor and STEM Career Development

There is an increasing concern that the demand for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers in the United States will exceed the supply. In the United States, very few students, and underrepresented students in particular, are pursuing STEM educational and occupational goals that underscores the need for school counselors to understand how to maximize opportunities for student success in STEM. Understanding the factors that influence students’ academic and career choices early on is necessary in order to provide effective interventions and responsive services that will have a positive impact on students’ future STEM career outcomes. Using social-cognitive career theory as a framework, this article synthesizes pertinent research on student STEM engagement, so that school counselors will be better able to support STEM career development for all students, especially those from historically underrepresented groups. Implications for school counseling practice are discussed.

Parental Support and Underrepresented Students’ Math/Science Interests

Using social cognitive career theory (SCCT), the present study examined the role of parental support and investigative learning experiences (i.e., performance accomplishments, verbal persuasion, vicarious influence, physiological arousal) in the development of math/science interests among high school students of color ( N = 206). Results of structural equation modeling analyses suggested the hypothesized model adequately fit the data. Parental support significantly predicted each learning experience variable, with the exception of physiological arousal. Performance accomplishments were the only learning experience variable that predicted both math/science self-efficacy and math/science outcome expectations. Self-efficacy significantly predicted interests, but did not predict outcome expectations. Furthermore, outcome expectations did not predict interests. Mediation tests indicated that performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, and self-efficacy mediated relationships between contextual and person-cognitive variables. Results are discussed in relation to SCCT and the development of career interests in math/science among underrepresented students.

Racism, Parent Support, and Math-Based Career Interests, Efficacy, and Outcome Expectations Among African American Adolescents

Using an extended model of social cognitive career theory, this study investigated ways in which African American middle school adolescents perceive racism and the associations among various aspects of perceptions of racism, other background factors, and math-based career interests, efficacy, and outcome expectations. Results indicated that African American adolescents clearly delineated among various types of interpersonal and institutional racism. Results also showed that various types of perceived racism were negatively associated with math efficacy and outcome expectations but positively associated with math and science interests. Greater interests in math were negatively related to poor academic performance, which in turn was negatively related to lack of peer support. Math outcome expectations was positively related to math efficacy and parent support. Adolescents who had lower academic performance also received greater parental support. The authors suggest that perceptions of racism be included as a factor in studies that examine the development of math/science interests among African American middle school adolescents.

Nursing students' confidence in medication calculations predicts math exam performance

The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties, including predictive validity, of the newly-developed nursing self-efficacy for mathematics (NSE-Math). The NSE-Math is a 12 item scale that comprises items related to mathematic and arithmetic concepts underpinning medication calculations. The NSE-Math instrument was administered to second year Bachelor of Nursing students enrolled in a nursing practice subject. Students' academic results for a compulsory medication calculation examination for this subject were collected. One-hundred and twelve students (73%) completed both the NSE-Math instrument and the drug calculation assessment task. The NSE-Math demonstrated two factors 'Confidence in application of mathematic concepts to nursing practice' and 'Confidence in arithmetic concepts' with 63.5% of variance explained. Cronbach alpha for the scale was 0.90. The NSE-Math demonstrated predictive validity with the medication calculation examination results (p=0.009). Psychometric testing suggests the NSE-Math is a valid measure of mathematics self-efficacy of second year nursing students.

The Effectiveness of a Career Decision-Making Course

This study examined the effectiveness of a college career course designed to increase career decision-making confidence and facilitate career exploration. Participants were 73 students from a large Midwestern university (65.6% women, 34.4% men, mean age 18.56). Students were given questionnaires assessing career decision-making difficulties, career decision-making self-efficacy, and perception of career and educational barriers during the first and fifteenth weeks of the course. Repeated measures analyses were conducted to examine possible differences in students' responses before and after the course. Results indicated that on completion of the course students' career decision-making difficulties decreased, career self-efficacy increased, and perceptions of barriers did not change.

Transtheoretical model of health behavior change applied to voice therapy

Studies of patient adherence to health behavior programs, such as physical exercise, smoking cessation, and diet, have resulted in the formulation and validation of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change. Although widely accepted as a guide for the development of health behavior interventions, this model has not been applied to vocal rehabilitation. Because resolution of vocal difficulties frequently depends on a patient's ability to make changes in vocal and health behaviors, the TTM may be a useful way to conceptualize voice behavior change processes, including the patient's readiness for change. The purpose of this paper is to apply the TTM to the voice therapy process to: (1) provide an organizing framework for understanding of behavior change in voice therapy, (2) explain how treatment adherence problems can arise, and (3) provide broad strategies to improve treatment adherence. Given the significant role of treatment adherence in treatment outcome, considering readiness for behavior change should be taken into account when planning treatment. Principles of health behavior change can aid speech pathologists in such understanding and estimating readiness for voice therapy.

Sex Role Group Differences in Specific, Academic, and General Self-Efficacy

The primary purpose of this study was to examine sex role group differences (androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated) in three different levels of self-efficacy (general, academic, and course specific). A sample of 215 undergraduate participants completed the three measures of self-efficacy and the sex role measure. Results showed that there was a multivariate significance among the sex role groups in the three levels of self-efficacy and that both masculine and androgynous groups had significantly higher general and academic efficacy means than the undifferentiated or feminine groups. The major findings in this study are largely consistent with findings of previous researchers, supporting the theory that masculinity may be a key construct in the differentiation of individuals in self-efficacy, which has been shown to be an important predictor of achievement.

Further examination of the Self-efficacy Scale

The purpose of this study was to examine further the factorial validity of the Self-efficacy Scale via component and subsequent correlational analyses. 651 undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology course voluntarily completed the Self-efficacy Scale and the Bem Sex-role Inventory. A principal component analysis with an orthogonal rotation produced a two-factor solution which was remarkably similar to the factor structures reported previously. The two factors (General Self-efficacy and Social Self-efficacy) accounted for about 34% of the total variance. Further, the correlation coefficients indicated that General Self-efficacy was more strongly related to masculine traits than to feminine traits, as defined by the Bem Sex-role Inventory.