Self-efficacy beliefs of university students: an empirical study on the specificity of the construct

This study tested two propositions of the Social Cognitive Theory in an academic setting: a) Self-efficacy is a domain-specific competence belief; b) Domain-specific self-fficacy is related, but distinct from, other self-evaluation constructs. Participants (272 Spanish university students) completed measures of general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, statistics self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics (cognitive and affective components). Principal Components Analyses and Confirmatory Factorial Analyses were performed, among other procedures. Taken as a whole, results support the propositions tested.