This research examines the specific nature of self-efficacy beliefs within music. Separate questionnaires assessing self-efficacy for musical learning and self-efficacy for musical performing were developed and tested, and the reliability of the new questionnaires was demonstrated using internal reliability tests and exploratory factor analysis. A sample of 250 conservatoire and university music students completed the two questionnaires and provided self-ratings of musical skills and attributes. The learning and performing questionnaires produced robust Cronbach alphas of .82 and .78, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed a single underlying factor within each questionnaire, and the stability of these questionnaires over time was established through the absence of significant differences in test—retest scores over a period of two to four weeks. Conservatoire students’ self-efficacy for musical learning was higher than that of university students, whereas there were no significant differences between conservatoire and university students in self-efficacy for musical performing. The two questionnaires also showed different patterns of correlations with a range of self-assessed musical skills and attributes, further demonstrating their distinctiveness. These results, which underline the need for differentiation in musical self-efficacy, highlight the importance of specificity and correspondence when measuring self-efficacy beliefs. The implications for measuring self-efficacy within other domains are discussed.

We propose that, because cross-sex friendships are a historically recent phenomenon, men’s and women’s evolved mating strategies impinge on their friendship experiences. In our first study involving pairs of friends, emerging adult males reported more attraction to their friend than emerging adult females did, regardless of their own or their friend’s current relationship status. In our second study, both emerging and middle-aged adult males and females nominated attraction to their cross-sex friend as a cost more often than as a benefit. Younger females and middle-aged participants who reported more attraction to a current cross-sex friend reported less satisfaction in their current romantic relationship. Our findings implicate attraction in cross-sex friendship as both common and of potential negative consequence for individuals’ long-term mateships.

The Self-Efficacy for Musical Learning questionnaire was adapted and tested with 404 primary school children, producing a robust Cronbach alpha (0.87) and confirming a single underlying factor through exploratory factor analysis. Test–retest scores showed the measure’s stability over a 9-month period. Data were collected on children’s prior music experience, extracurricular activities, and typical daily activities. Children also completed the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Those currently engaged in music tuition (learning an instrument or singing) had significantly higher self-efficacy scores than children who were not, and overall, girls’ scores were significantly higher than boys’. Correlations with various additional measures, including wellbeing and reading for pleasure, highlighted multifaceted relationships of self-efficacy to children’s lives. Regression analyses revealed that prior experience with instrumental tuition was the strongest predictor of music self-efficacy for learning; prosocial behaviors predicted boys’ scores, and well-being predicted girls’ scores.