The Structure of Children's Perceived Self-Efficacy: A Cross-National Study

Summary: The present study investigated the replicability of the factor structure of the Children’s Perceived Self-Efficacy scales (CPSE; Bandura, 1990) in Italy, Hungary, and Poland. The findings of this cross-national study support the generalizability of the factor structure of children’s social and academic efficacy. Perceived efficacy to resist peer pressure to engage transgressive conduct had a somewhat different factor structure for Hungarian children. Gender and national differences in the pattern of efficacy beliefs underscore the value of treating perceived self-efficacy as a multifaceted attribute. There were no overall gender differences in perceived social efficacy, but girls in all three societies have a higher sense of efficacy for academic activities and to resist peer pressure for transgressive activities. Italian children judge themselves more academically efficacious than do Hungarian children and more socially efficacious than their counterparts in both of the other two countries. An analysis of the facets of academic efficacy revealed that Hungarian children have a high sense of efficacy to master academic subjects but a lower efficacy than their Italian and Polish counterparts to take charge of their own learning. Polish children surpassed their counterparts in academic self-regulatory efficacy. Perceived self-efficacy concerns people’s beliefs in their capabilities to produce given attainments. This construct was developed by Bandura (1977) within a social-cognitive theory of human functioning. According to this perspective, sense of personal efficacy is a key factor in the exercise of human agency within a causal structure involving triadic reciprocal causation between the person, the environment, and behavior (Bandura, 1986). People