Predictors of Self-Efficacy for Academic Writing in College Students: Reading Comprehension and Self-Efficacy

The objective of scientific research is to produce new knowledge; therefore, science cannot be produced in the absence of comprehension of academic texts and, subsequently, production of texts that capture the ideas discovered. In this sense, the objective was to determine whether reading comprehension and self-efficacy predict self efficacy for academic writing. To this end, a crosssectional, analytical and predictive study was carried out in 357 university students from the Puno region of Peru, who were selected under a non-probabilistic sampling. The students were evaluated by means of three scales: SEWS (Self Efficacy for Writing Scale), Reading Self-Efficacy Scale and Reading Comprehension Test. Applying multivariate linear regression analysis, it was found that reading self-efficacy is a good predictor of self-efficacy for academic writing; in contrast, reading comprehension shows only a minimal functional association.