Latent Profile Analysis of the Sources of Middle School Reading Self-Efficacy

• In Event: Person-Centered Research: A Methodological Answer to Motivation Theory's Most Critical Questions

Abstract

Theoretical Framework and Purpose
Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997) contends that individuals derive a sense of what they can do (i.e., self-efficacy) by interpreting information from past performances, observations of others, evaluative messages from the social environment, and their own physiological and affective feedback. Mastery experience is typically the most influential of these sources; however, students likely integrate information from more than one source when deciding what they can do (Usher & Pajares, 2008). Little attention has been given to differential patterns of this integration.

The purpose of this study is to apply a person-centered approach to examine latent profiles in the sources of self-efficacy and to determine whether individual characteristics (gender, grade level, socioeconomic status, implicit theory of ability) were associated with each profile. We followed analytic procedures used by Chen and Usher (2013) who examined the sources of middle and high school students’ science self-efficacy. They found that four profiles helped explain how science students integrate efficacy-relevant information and that students with optimal self-efficacy sources reported a more malleable view of science ability.

Method
Participants were 1,973 students from four public middle schools in the southeastern U.S. Students reported their reading self-efficacy, self-regulatory self-efficacy, and sources of self-efficacy by responding on a 6-point scale to items adapted for reading from those used previously in other academic domains (e.g., Usher & Pajares, 2009). Students’ implicit theory of reading ability was adapted from Dweck (1999). Schools provided two measures of standardized reading achievement: Measures of Academic Progress and criterion-referenced state test scores.

Analyses and Results
Latent profile analyses were conducted on the four sources of reading self-efficacy using Mplus 7 (Muthen & Muthen, 1998-2012). Empirical criteria, theoretical considerations, and interpretability were used to determine the most reasonable number of latent profiles. A five-profile model had slightly better fit indices and similar patterns to the four-profile model previously reported. A fifth (“Anxious Achiever”) profile emerged that included students high on all four sources of self-efficacy (Figure 1). Probabilities of belonging to each profile group were calculated as a function of gender, grade, free/reduced-price lunch status, and implicit theory of ability scores. The probability of being in the Anxious Achiever group was higher for boys. No grade level differences emerged. Students with low SES had a higher probability of being in the At Risk, Moderate, or Anxious Achiever groups. Students with an incremental view of reading ability were more likely to be in the Multi Source profile. Multi Source students reported the highest level of reading self-efficacy and achievement; At Risk students reported the lowest. Anxious Achievers evidenced high self-efficacy but lower reading achievement.

Significance
This study employed a person-centered (rather than variable-centered) technique to describe the complex interplay of efficacy-relevant information that middle school students rely on in reading. Results are similar to those obtained in science: students who report efficacy-building experiences from multiple sources are more likely to have higher self-efficacy and achievement and to hold a view that they can improve as readers.

Authors

• Ellen L. Usher, University of Kentucky

• Fred Danner, University of Kentucky

• Stephen M. Tonks, Northern Illinois University