Factor composition of an alimentary and physical health care self-efficacy scale in Mexican university students

Introduction: Self-efficacy is an important factor of mediation toward how individuals feel, think, are motivated, and how they act. The expectation of self-efficacy is an important predictor of intentions and act of individuals in every situation, being its measure therefore necessary. Objectives: The present study analyzes the psycometric properties of a self-efficacy in the alimentary and physical health care scale, verifying its structure and its factor invariance. Methods: The sample was composed of 1,313 university students from the Physical Education and Human Motricity that are delivering in the university (omitted for the blind review), with an average age of 20.46 +/- 1.87 years. The factor structure of the scale was analyzed through confirmatory factor analyses. Results: Results showed the adequacy of a five-factor structure (physical exercise, alimentary care, facing problems, avoid tabac consume, and avoid alcohol consume). The scale showed adequate fit indices of reliability (values higher than 0.85) and validity (GFI = 0.907; RMSEA = 0.053; CFI = 0.960), explaining more than 70% of the variance. Moreover, results from factor analyses conducted with two sub-samples indicated strong evidences of stability of the factor structure (CFI differences below 0.01) Conclusions: Self-efficacy scale in alimentary and physical health care is adequate and can be used in scientific studies. Further research should corroborate the results of this study.