Reading Self-Efficacy in Early Adolescence: Which Measure Works Best?

• In Event: 31.091 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 31.091-1 - Advances and Issues in the Measurement of Reading Motivation

Abstract

Researchers typically focus on the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of reading, such as the development of basic skills (alphabetics, fluency, comprehension) and self-regulation (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006; Wigfield, 1997). Fewer have investigated the role of learners’ beliefs about their capabilities to implement these skills. These efficacy beliefs likely provide the impetus for many reading behaviors (Bandura, 1997). Nevertheless, fewer than 10% of self-efficacy studies conducted in academic settings in the last decade have examined how efficacy beliefs operate in literacy domains (Klassen & Usher, 2010).

Some researchers have confirmed a link between self-efficacy and achievement in reading (e.g., Shell et al., 1995; Wentzel, 1996). Others have found no relationship (e.g., Guthrie et al., 2007). This picture might be unclear for several reasons. The reading self-efficacy measures that researchers have used have not always corresponded to the achievement outcome under investigation. Asking students, “How good are you in reading?” does not reveal how confident students are in their specific capabilities. Most skills-based measures have failed to capture the range of skills required for reading competence. Few have assessed students’ self-efficacy for self-regulation in reading, which might also be closely related to how readers perform (Schunk & Usher, 2011). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between various reading self-efficacy beliefs and learners’ performance in reading.

Participants were 364 students in Grades 4 to 6 from three schools in the southeastern United States. Students were 66% European American, 27% African American, 3% Latino, and 4% other ethnicities (44% qualified for free/reduced-price lunch). Students completed a survey that included four reading self-efficacy measures (general, test-specific, self-regulatory, and skills-specific). Reading performance was measured by four metrics: language arts grades, standardized reading test scores, teacher ratings of students’ reading competence, and daily minutes read.

Results indicated that the reading self-efficacy measures were psychometrically sound (.76 ≤ α ≤ .91). Reading skills self-efficacy was represented by two factors: “academic” and “extracurricular.” Four hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of the reading self-efficacy variables on each reading performance outcome. Self-efficacy explained 2.5% to 19% of the variance in performance outcomes General reading self-efficacy predicted language arts grade. Skills self-efficacy predicted standardized test scores. Students’ academic reading self-efficacy predicted the competence ratings students received by their reading teachers. Self-efficacy for self-regulation in reading predicted daily minutes read.

Although many researchers have assessed self-efficacy across academic content areas (i.e., writing, science, math), few have looked at the various efficacy judgments that students make about the different types of tasks or skills they face within one content area. These findings suggest that reading self-efficacy is best measured in a context-specific manner. Results demonstrate the importance of correspondence between type of self-efficacy and the achievement outcome of interest. The modest amount of variance explained suggests that self-efficacy explains less variance in reading performance than performance in others domains.

Authors

• Raven R. Piercey, University of Kentucky

• Ellen L. Usher, University of Kentucky