| Abstrakt: |
This descriptive study, one component of the Carolina Adolescent Health Project (CAHP), measured self-efficacy in a voluntary sample of 432 normal freshmen and sophomore urban high school students. Using Coppel's Self-Efficacy Scale (SES), which is based on Bandura's conceptualization of self-efficacy, the research also examined the effect of gender, race, socioeconomic status, and self-reported religiosity on self-efficacy. The teenagers in this sample had a moderately high degree of self-efficacy with a mean SES score of 45.37 (SES range = 13-65). A series of t tests and one-way and two-way analyses of variance indicated no significant difference in SES scores by race, gender, socioeconomic status, or religiosity. Findings did not support the investigators' original expectation that these demographic and psychosocial variables would affect self-efficacy. The study provides normative data for future comparative studies using the SES. |
