Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale for Children (CPSE; Bandura, 1990) has been developed as an important tool to measure Self-Efficacy in school contexts. Previous factorial studies revealed a three-factor structure (Bandura et al.,1996) that includes Academic self-efficacy, Social self-efficacy and Regulatory self-efficacy.
The object of the present study is to further validate the CPSE scale in the Italian context and to extend the examination of its psychometric characteristics on a sample of Colombian children and adolescents.
Sample: about 700 Colombian and Italian children and adolescents will be involved in the study and will be administered with CPSE. The Italian sample will consist of students drawn from middle and junior high schools in the metropolitan area of Rome. Regarding the Colombian sample, participants will be drawn from middle and junior high schools of 3 sites (Medellin, Santa Marta and Manizales). For both samples, letters describing the study will be sent home via children and parental informed consent. Questionnaires for students will be administered in each classroom by trained members of the research team during school hours.
Results: Multi-sample Confirmatory Factor Analysis will be employed. We expect to confirm the CPSE structure and find support for measurement invariance across Italian and Colombian adolescents also controlling for potential gender differences.
Findings on CPSE's psychometric properties in a cross-cultural framework would allow its proper use from researchers and professionals.
Over the years, cross-sectional and longitudinal findings have attested to the role that multi-faceted self-efficacy beliefs have on promoting positive behaviors and preventing maladaptive behaviors over the course of adolescence. In particular, academic, social and self-regulatory efficacy beliefs have proved to contribute to the promotion of prosocial behavior (Bandura at al.,2003) academic aspirations and career trajectories (Bandura et al., 2001), peer preference and academic achievement (Caprara et al., 2004), as well as to prevent internalizing and externalizing problems (Caprara et al., 2004) and engagement in transgressive behaviours (Bandura et al. 2001). Given the centrality of perceived efficacy beliefs in people's lives, clear assessment of their dimensions is crucial to understanding and predicting human behaviour. In this regard, the CPSE scale is a valuable toll to measure perceived Self-efficacy in the school context that represents an optimal social and learning environment for children and adolescents¿ development. Contextual and cultural differences shape educational systems and in turn affect students' social and learning experiences. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to test cross-national measurement invariance of CPSE scale. When measurement invariance is explicitly tested, the main issue that is examined is whether the scale being used is functioning the same way across cultural groups (Kline, 2011). Regarding psychometric properties, based on previous studies, we expect to find evidence for the existence of a multidimensional structure of the CPSE addressing academic, social and regulatory Self-Efficacy (Pastorelli et al.,2001; Carrasco Ortiz & del Barrio Gandara, 2002). Nevertheless, due to the lack of comparable cross-national studies on perceived self-efficacy, we decided to not formulate specific hypothesis on potential differences/similarities among Italian and Colombian samples. Findings will provide new contribution to the research literature in several ways:
1- The present study will provide additional empirical evaluation of the factorial structure of the CPSE scale, adding evidence of its multidimensionality found in the previous studies.
2- It will be the first to test the factorial structure in a Colombian sample, addressing students' academic, social and regulatory efficacy beliefs specifically in the Colombian cultural context.
3- Test for Measurement Invariance will allow to explore CPSE's cross-cultural validity by comparing perceived Self-efficacy in culturally-diverse samples. Evidence for measurement invariance based both on the Italian and Colombian educational systems, will lend further support to the cultural generalizability of perceived Self-Efficacy beliefs across countries (Caprara et al., 2008). On the other hand, findings of measurement differences will shed a light on the way heterogeneity of educational systems requires consideration when utilizing instruments designed to guide practice, research, and policies across students from different cultural background.
4- Findings will provide useful guidelines on CPSE to teachers and school practitioners whose task it is to help adolescents learn to organize and regulate their social and academic lives effectively. A refined assessment of a scale measuring perceived Self-Efficacy in school contexts would not only increase predictiveness, but it also would provide guidelines for tailoring programs to individual needs.