Self-Efficacy and Hispanic College Students: Validation of the College Self-Efficacy Instrument

Abstract

Self-efficacy theory was proposed as an important determinant in Hispanic college student adjustment. Self-efficacy refers to the strength of a person's belief that they are able to produce a given behavior, and operationally. college self-efficacy was defined as a student's degree of confidence that they could successfully complete a given college-related task (e.g., taking notes, asking a question in class, etc.). The College Self-Efficacy Inventory was validated using a sample of 164 Mexican-American andLatino-American college students who responded to a survey questionnaire (response rate = 51.7%). Principal components analysis of the 20-item instrumentyielded three subscales: course efficacy (e.g., writing papers, doing well on ecxams), social efficacy (e.g., talking with professors, making friends at the university), and roommate efficacy (e.g., socializing with roommates, dividing apartment space). The subscales were found to have strong internal consistency and demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity.