Psychometric properties of the Self-Efficacy Scale for Academic Performance in university students

The Social Cognitive Theory recog-nizes Self-efficacy within the framework of personal beliefs that allow people to exercise some control over their behavior, being of particular relevance in relation to university life and Academic Performance.University life poses not only cognitive challenges but also emotional and social challenges that involve the development and mobilization of personal resources to adapt to the demands of higher education. Self -effi-cacy linked to Academic Performance in this context can be a factor that favors learning in the case of perceived adequately capable, or it can be a factor that contributes to shelling or abandonment in the case of not being adequately experienced. Given its impor-tance, the conceptualization of the concept of Self-efficacy has made possible the design of various scales that allow evaluating this construct, some oriented to the evaluation of General Self-efficacy and others to Self -effi-cacy in relation to specific aspects. However, given the complexity of the concept and the factors that influence its configuration, it is considered necessary to research and develop specific instruments related to the transit through university life with all the demands that it entails and that allow a deeper under-standing of this particular training stage.The present work aimed to study the psychometric properties of the abbreviated version of the Self-efficacy Scale for Academic Performance in university students adapted by Krumm and Lemos (2012). The study presented was instrumental in nature, with a cross-sectional, non-experimental design, an incidental non-probabilistic sampling was used. 1044 university students, all residing in Formosa Capital at the time of the study, participated. The mean age of the participants was 26 years (SD = 7.125), being 24.9% men (n = 260) and 75.1 % women (n = 784). The original Scale consisted of 24 items and three subscales: (1) coping with negative physical and emotional states; (2) social relationships; and (3) coping with positive emotions. The following reliability indices were reported for each subscale: Cronbach's Alpha of .59, .69 and .55 respectively.Considering the technique of structural equations, the confirmatory factor anal-ysis (CFA) was carried out on the original version of the Scale (Model 1), carrying out two re-specifications, which generated two models, Model 2 defined as a one-dimen-sional Scale with 24 items and Model 3 or short version, defined from a one-dimensional scale with 9 items. The results obtained show that the three dimensions proposed in the orig-inal scale did not emerge as such, since the items that made it up presented differences in grouping by factor. The final solution or short version obtained optimal fit indices (RMSEA = .019; TL I = .999; CFI = .998 and GFI = .997). Regarding reliability, the Omega coef-ficient showed a high internal consistency of the scale both for the original test and for the abbreviated version, indicating that, despite having reduced the number of items on the scale, it retains adequate reliability.From the results obtained, it is confirmed that the proposal of a short version of the Self-efficacy Scale for Academic Perfor-mance presents adequate psychometric prop-erties and enables the evaluation of academic self-efficacy in university students in a prac-tical way, which is why it is particularly useful in research contexts.