Role of Self-Efficacy and General Mental Ability in Mathematical Problem-Solving: A Path Analysis.

MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. *Affective Behavior; High Schools; *High School Students; *Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics Anxiety; Mathematics Education; Path Analysis; *Self Efficacy; *Student Attitudes; *Student Motivation According to social cognitive theorists, people's judgments of their own capabilities to accomplish specific tasks strongly influence human motivation and behavior. Path analysis was used to test the influence of math self-efficacy and general mental ability on the math problem-solving performance of 329 high school students. A model that also included math anxiety, gender, and math background accounted for 61% of the variance in performance. Ability and self-efficacy had strong direct effects on performance. Ability also had a strong direct effect on self-efficacy, which largely mediated the indirect effect of ability and background on performance. Self-efficacy had a strong direct effect on anxiety, which, in turn, had a weak direct effect on performance. Although girls and boys did not differ in ability, self-efficacy, or performance, girls reported higher anxiety. Most students were overconfident about their mathematics capability. Results support the hypothes_zed role of self-efficacy in Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory. Contains 51 references. (Author/MKR) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made 1.: from the original document. * Math Self-Efficacy I Running Head: MATH SELF-EFFICACY Role of Self-efficacy and General Mental Ability In Mathematical Problem-solving: A Path Analysis Frank Pajares Emory University John Kranz ler University of Florida Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, 1995 Session 37.24 Please address correspondence to: Prof. Frank Pajares Educational Studies Emory University Atlanta, GA 30322 ft_ Tel: 404-727-1775 BEST COPY AVAILABLE /..C1) Fax: 404-727-2799 Email: mpajarcPunix.cc.emory.edu S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION . Aesearcn and In4yOveme 11,1AT.. NA, NE SC-MACES INFoRMATION F IF P tEmr, . GOO" rAproduce<1 Al ['WSW, or monzalion at ng .1 ge5 tyP nee, merle lo oroprOve 11,..1.r. tom, rionh.ly to, o. to+. to ouoo,SSIld nIMS dock, 1. ,er,P.13/1,,y 0.CW f utoI y i F PIMI!.,;( IN 1() FF PHODLI(.1 .1A 1J HIM ViA, f CBANTF 1) BY Kiltk:kw ,1 I A III It.1 AI !, 1,11 ' It IN 111 Math Self-Efficacy 2