Academic self-efficacy and first year college student performance and adjustment PDF

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Journal of Educational Psychology Copyright 2001 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 2001, Vol. 93, No. 1, 55-64 0O22-O663/01/S5.OO DOI: 10.1037//0022-0663.93.1.55 Academic Self-Efficacy and First-Year College Student Performance and Adjustment Martin M. Chemers, Li-tze Hu, and Ben F. Ga...

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Academic self-efficacy and first year college student performance and adjustment Meify Siymeimei Journal of Educational Psychology

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Journal of Educational Psychology 2001, Vol. 93, No. 1, 55-64

Copyright 2001 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0O22-O663/01/S5.OO DOI: 10.1037//0022-0663.93.1.55

Academic Self-Efficacy and First-Year College Student Performance and Adjustment Martin M. Chemers, Li-tze Hu, and Ben F. Garcia

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

University of California, Santa Cruz A longitudinal study of lst-year university student adjustment examined the effects of academic self-efficacy and optimism on students' academic performance, stress, health, and commitment to remain in school. Predictor variables (high school grade-point average, academic self-efficacy, and optimism) and moderator variables (academic expectations and self-perceived coping ability) were measured at the end of the first academic quarter and were related to classroom performance, personal adjustment, stress, and health, measured at the end of the school year. Academic self-efficacy and optimism were strongly related to performance and adjustment, both directly on academic performance and indirectly through expectations and coping perceptions (challenge-threat evaluations) on classroom performance, stress, health, and overall satisfaction and commitment to remain in school. Observed relationships corresponded closely to the hypothesized model.

Change can be unsettling. The transition from high school to college can place significant demands on young adults (Tinto, 1982,1993). College life can be demanding and stressful for a new student (Noel, Levitz, & Saluri, 1985) and requires higher levels of independence, initiative, and self-regulation (Bryde & Milburn, 1990). It is the thesis of this article that confidence in one's relevant abilities (i.e., self-efficacy) and optimism play a major role in an individual's successful negotiation of challenging life transitions. We present evidence to support a theoretical model of the effects, both direct and indirect, of self-efficacy and optimism on academic performance and personal adjustment of lst-year college students. We first argue for, and then test, a model in which moderator variables such as academic expectations and selfperceptions of coping ability mediate the effects of efficacy and optimism beliefs. Tinto (1993) argued that the key determinant of persistence and success at college is commitment. This emphasis on intention or commitment is shared by many researchers in this field (Anderson, 1985; Bean, 1990; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1980), and researchers agree that both personal and environmental characteristics interact in the prediction of persistence (Anderson, 1985; Bean, 1985, 1990; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1980; RochaSingh, 1990; Russell & Petrie, 1992). Both Tinto (1993) and Bean (1990) have talked about aptitudes and capabilities as contributing to a sense of academic confidence or efficacy that helps to determine goal commitment. There are some very good reasons for focusing attention more closely on academic self-efficacy as a

central determinant of the success of high school to university transitions.

Self-Efficacy, Academic Persistence, and Success Bandura (1997) described self-efficacy as "the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to produce given attainments" (p. 3). Efficacy beliefs influence the particular courses of action a person chooses to pursue, the amount of effort that will be expended, perseverance in the face of challenges and failures, resilience, and the ability to cope with the demands associated with the chosen course. Self-efficacy has been related to persistence, tenacity, and achievement in educational settings (Bandura, 1986; Schunk, 1981; Zimmerman, 1989). A meta-analysis of research in educational settings (Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991) found that selfefficacy was related both to academic performance (r = .38) and to persistence (r = .34). The contribution of self-efficacy to educational achievement is based both on the increased use of specific cognitive activities and strategies and on the positive impact of efficacy beliefs on the broader, more general classes of metacognitive skills and coping abilities. The evidence that self-efficacy is able to improve performance in specific cognitive areas is well developed, and it is also very clear that self-efficacy is much more than the reflection of contentspecific ability. In studies of mathematics problem solving, children with high efficacy were found to persist longer (BouffardBouchard, Parent, & Larivee, 1991) and to use more efficient problem-solving strategies (Collins, 1982) than low-efficacy learners. Even more impressive support for the independent contribution of efficacy beyond ability is provided by studies that manipulate, rather than measure, existing levels of efficacy. BouffardBouchard (1990) and Cervone and Peake (1986) manipulated efficacy beliefs of students by providing fictitious performance norms during feedback. Students in the positive feedback (i.e., high self-efficacy) condition set higher aspirations, showed greater

Martin M. Chemers, Li-tze Hu, and Ben F. Garcia, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz. The authors would like to thank the Division of Student Affairs at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for providing financial support for this research. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Martin M. Chemers, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected]. 55

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strategic flexibility in the search for solutions, achieved higher performance, and were more accurate in evaluating the level of their performance than were students of equal ability who received less positive feedback. Mediating Processes of Self-Efficacy Effects

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Cognitive Processes Confidence in one's ability to complete a task or solve a problem contributes to a more calm and thoughtful approach. For example, making decisions in complex environments requires integrating large amounts of diverse information, interpreting feedback, testing and revising knowledge, and implementing selection options. In an extensive series of studies of decision making, Bandura and his associates (Bandura & Jourden, 1991; Bandura & Wood, 1989; Wood & Bandura, 1989; Wood, Bandura, & Bailey, 1990) found that participants (usually MB.A. students) who were higher in decision-making self-efficacy, either through selfappraisal or through manipulated performance feedback, used more thoughtful and skillful analytic strategies for improving performance than did less efficacious participants. Self-efficacy acts on a broader level through the more effective use of metacognitive strategies, which involve planning and selfregulation—skills that become increasingly important as an individual progresses through educational levels to environments that are less ordered and constrained (e.g., college or university life). Metacognition involves the appraisal and control of one's cognitive activity (i.e., thinking about thinking) and making use of all the resources available in the task and social environment to achieve goal attainment (Zimmerman, 1995; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1988). Students high in academic self-efficacy make greater use of effective cognitive strategies in learning, manage their time and learning environments more effectively, and are better at monitoring and regulating their own effort. Academic self-efficacy is related to students' confidence in mastering academic subjects, which in turn predicted grades in school.

Motivational Processes Bandura (1997) argued that self-efficacy has its most powerful motivational effects through the process of cognized goals. Goals provide the basis for self-regulation of effort by providing a standard for judging the adequacy and effectiveness of goalrelevant effort and strategy (Bandura & Cervone, 1983). Specific and difficult (but not impossible) goals are strongly related to performance in a wide variety of tasks and settings (Locke & Latham, 1990). Self-efficacy leads to higher goals being set (Wood et al., 1990; Zimmerman, Bandura, & Martinez-Pons, 1992), and high goals increase the positive effects of self-efficacy by providing an evaluative context to aid self-regulation (Cervone, Jiwani, & Wood, 1991). When goals provide a standard, highly efficacious persons show a stronger relationship among self-evaluation, selfdirection, and performance (Bandura & Schunk, 1981). Goals, and the broader category of positive expectations, are one type of vehicle by which efficacy effects are manifested.

Affective Processes Anxiety and negative emotions can be debilitating. Self-efficacy has an impact on affect through its effects on attention and con-

strual of environmental demands, by the choice of actions taken, and through its effect on the ability to control and manage negative or potentially negative emotions. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) argued that the way in which an individual construes the demands placed by the environment can have dramatic impact on his or her ability to cope with that environment. They made a distinction between regarding demands as "threats" versus "challenges." Bandura (1997) also argued that a high sense of coping efficacy encourages individuals to adopt courses of action designed to change hazardous environments. People with high perceived efficacy are less likely to be immobilized by anxiety (Betz & Hackett, 1983; Krampen, 1988). For example, Meece, Wigfield, and Eccles (1990) found that effects of past performance on math anxiety and math performance were mediated by personal efficacy beliefs. Pintrich and DeGroot (1990) also reported that it was the efficacy beliefs, rather than anxiety, that were predictive of academic achievement. Self-efficacy beliefs are related to an enhanced ability to use effective problem-solving and decision-making strategies, to plan and manage one's personal resources more efficiently, to entertain more positive expectations, and to set higher goals. Very central to these self-efficacy effects seems to be the ability to manage the stressors created in demanding situations by means of a more positive analysis of extant risks and available coping resources, which results in the tendency to see demanding situations as challenges rather than threats. Optimism and Positive Expectations Optimism may also be a good candidate for a characteristic affecting challenge-threat evaluations. Leadership self-efficacy and general optimism have been shown to be related to superiors' judgments of effective performance in the leadership role (Chemers, Watson, & May, 2000). Optimism is related to psychological well-being in a broad variety of demanding situations (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 2000). Optimism is a dispositional tendency to hold generalized positive expectancies even ". . .when people confront adversity or difficulty in their lives" (Scheier et al., 2000, p. 3). More positive emotional reactions and expectations—from excitement to eagerness—are associated with the greater use of active, problem-focused coping rather than avoidance or withdrawal. Positive expectancies also predict better reactions during transitions to new academic environments. Optimistic students report lower levels of psychological stress and loneliness and higher levels of social support and psychological and physical well-being (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1992; Scheier & Carver, 1992). Optimistic medical students suffer less depression and anxiety (Stewart et al., 1997), and optimistic lst-year law school students evidence less mood disturbance compared with less optimistic students (Segerstrom, Taylor, Kemeny, & Fahey, 1998). Effects of optimism appear to be mediated by coping style. Both active (e.g., planning and problem solving) and passive (e.g., control of negative emotions) coping mediate the effects of optimism on the outcome variables (Segerstrom et al., 1998; Stewart et al., 1997). Thus, optimism should play an important role in maintaining positive expectations and reactions to lst-year college life. The effects of optimism should be indirect; that is, they should operate through the impact of optimism on judgments and expectations. In

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particular, we expected generalized positive expectations of optimists to be related to the more specific academic expectations, which we hypothesized to underlie classroom performance. Optimism should also have considerable influence on the perceptions of extant demands and available resources that are at the core of challenge and threat evaluations.

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Challenge-Threat Evaluations as Moderators of the Self-Efficacy-Adjustment Relationship The most extensive operationalization, elaboration, and extension of the challenge-threat concept has been offered by Blascovich and his associates (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1996; Tomaka, Blascovich, Kelsey, & Leitten, 1993). Their work is particularly relevant to the present study because of their focus on "motivated performance situations," which are situations that are "goal relevant for performers and require instrumental cognitive-behavioral responses by them" (Blascovich, Mendes, Lickel, & Hunter, in press, p. 3). Transitions to university life do indeed involve goalrelevant performance requiring effective response across an extended time period. The perception of a situation as challenging or threatening depends on the individual's phenomenological experience of the relationship between situational demands and coping resources. Threat occurs when the individual experiences resources as insufficient to meet demands, and challenge occurs when resources are felt to be adequate to demands. A considerable body of empirical work has shown that the challenge-threat evaluation is strongly related to affective responses and physiological reactivity, with threat evaluations associated with potentially pernicious patterns of cardiovascular responsivity. Recently, Blascovich and Mendes (in press) more finely elucidated the factors that influence demand and resource evaluations. Demand evaluations are based on perceptions of the amount of required effort, danger, and uncertainty involved in the particular performance situation. The 1st year of college might contain elements of all three of these factors in varying amounts. Clearly, estimates of required effort are very prominent in the new student's appraisal of the situation. Uncertainty about new friends, living conditions, and finances is also likely to be a part of many students' worries. The potential for academic failure, social embarrassment, or even physical threats (e.g., from sexual attack, drug or alcohol availability, etc.) may also enter into a new student's evaluations of situational demand. Blascovich and Mendes (in press) described resource evaluations to include perceptions of one's knowledge and abilities relevant to the task, availability of external support, and dispositional characteristics. Students who come from scholastically excellent high schools with a strong college-prepatory curriculum may see themselves as possessing many resources. Available support networks of family, peers, faculty, or institutional structure also enhance resource evaluations. In particular, the present research hypothesizes that dispositional characteristics related to efficacy and optimism should have a very strong impact on resource perceptions. Students high in academic self-efficacy should see themselves as more able to meet the demands of the situation and should therefore be more likely to regard the 1st year of college as a challenge rather than a threat. Optimism, associated with generalized positive expectations and more active coping

styles, should be related both to higher expectations for success in academic pursuits and to more positive expectations and reactions to adversity or emotional demand (i.e., stress). The Hypothesized Model In the present study, we surveyed the lst-year class at a state university. Measures of academic self-efficacy, optimism, and challenge-threat evaluation were taken immediately after the completion of the first quarter of university work but before students had received formal evaluation feedback. Measures of self-rated academic performance, future academic expectations, stress, health, and satisfaction were taken at the same time. In a follow-up survey conducted near the end of the first academic year, measures of academic performance (self-rated), academic expectations, stress, health, and adjustment were repeated. Faculty ratings of academic performance for all courses taken during the 1st year were also collected. On the basis of our interpretation of the efficacy literature, we expected academic self-efficacy to have a profound impact on the academic performance and personal adjustment of lst-year college students as they navigate the demanding environment of university life. Self-efficacy was expected to exert direct and mediated effects on performance, health, and adjustment. Figure 1 displays the path diagram for the hypothesized model. Previous findings on the relationship of self-efficacy to academic and cognitive performance (e.g., Zimmerman, 1989) suggest that the calm and thoughtful demeanor encouraged by confidence should result in direct effects of academic self-efficacy on classroom performance. Highly efficacious students should make better use of analytic strategies and metacognitive skills for managing the learning environment, resulting in better learning and better evaluations. Given the importance of goals on perseverance and the effective use of self-regulatory strategies, we also expected academic selfefficacy to affect performance through its impact on academic expectations. However, we believe that expectations arise out of broad evaluations of the situation and its demands, so we expected an indirect path to expectations through challenge-threat evaluations. We predicted that self-efficacy and optimism would influence challenge-threat evaluations, which would in turn have an effect on academic expectations, which would predict academic performance. The impact of self-efficacy on personal adjustment and health was presumed to be moderated by challenge-threat evaluations. The challenge-threat evaluation seems most closely related to affective coping and stress management. We predicted that the effects of dispositional characteristics, academic self-efficacy, and optimism on perceived stress, health, and adjustment would be moderated by challenge-threat evaluations. Note that high school grade-point average (GPA) was included in...