Self-Efficacy Inertia: The Role of Competency Beliefs and Academic Burden in Achievement

• In Event: Is This Worth It? Examining How Students Weigh Competing Motivational Beliefs Through an Expectancy-Value Lens

Abstract

This study aimed to explore: 1) how self-efficacy and academic burden relate to academic performance over time; and 2) whether modeling both between and within subject variance components provides a more comprehensive perspective that is better aligned with theory.

The study of self-efficacy, or perceived capabilities for learning at designated levels (Bandura, 1977), emphasizes the dynamic interaction among person, environment, and behavior. However, traditional motivation research often overlooks dynamic interactions (Kaplan, 2012; Marchand & Hilpert, 2023). Advances in statistical modeling (Mulder & Hamaker, 2021) now allow for distinguishing between stable and dynamic components of constructs such as self-efficacy (Burić et al., 2022). Although research is clear that between-subject differences in self-efficacy are related to academic performance (Honicke & Broadbent, 2016), and individual differences in vicarious learning, physiological state interpretation, or mastery experiences can alter self-efficacy (Awang-Hashim et al., 2002; Vongkulluksn et al., 2018; Xie et al., 2019), research is sparse on how within-subject variance components of self-efficacy relate to perceptions of environmental factors and influence academic achievement. In the current study, we examine the combined effect of self-efficacy and academic burden on academic achievement. We operationalize academic burden as students’ appraisal of environmental demands within situated academic contexts (Boekaerts, 1993; Singh et al., 2017; Kennett et al., 2021), a construct similar to perceived cost. We focus on efficacy inertia, or the within subject dynamic carry-over effect of previous psychological states on later periods (Suls et al., 1998).

Self-efficacy and academic burden were collected at five time points, one month apart, from undergraduate students in a biology class (N = 443; 69.98% female, 30.02% male). See Table 3.1 for factor score and final grade correlations, as well as item descriptive statistics. Longitudinal relationships between self-efficacy, academic burden, and grade were explored under a random intercept cross-lagged panel model framework (RI-CLPM; Hamaker et al., 2015). The data were fitted to four models: 1) a standard cross lagged panel model (CLPM), 2) a RI-CLPM), 3) an RI-CLPM in which grade was regressed on the random-intercepts (Figure 3.1 Model A), and 4) an RI-CLPM in which grade was regressed on the random-intercepts and the within-person fluctuations (Figure 3.2 Model B).

The RI-CLPM was a better fit to the data over the CLPM, indicating that separating within- from between-subject effects better capture the reciprocal relationships between self-efficacy and academic burden. When only the between-subject effects (i.e., general tendency) of self-efficacy and academic burden were specified to predict grade, there was a significant positive relationship between self-efficacy and grade. However, when within-person variations over time (i.e., inertia) were added as predictors in addition to between-subject differences, the between-subject components were no longer significant predictors of achievement (Figure 3.2). Standardized parameter estimates for the predictive RI-CLPM models are provided in Tables 3.2-3.3. These results suggest that gaining self-efficacy momentum (inertia) in the face of academic burden is more predictive of academic achievement than a general tendency towards confidence relative to peers. These findings suggest students’ cognitive weighing of motivation within themselves is perhaps critical to academic achievement.

Authors

• Sarah Margaret Wolff, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Jonathan C. Hilpert, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Vanessa Wanchanit Vongkulluksn, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Matthew L. Bernacki, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Jeff A. Greene, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill