Cross-cultural differences in academic self-efficacy and its sources across socialization contexts

Abstract

This study investigated how as reported by Bandura (Self-efficacy: The exercise of control Freeman, 1997) sources of self-efficacy differ across socialization contexts for German students with diverse immigrant backgrounds. We measured all four sources of academic self-efficacy in three socialization contexts for students of former Soviet Union and Turkish descent as well as without an immigrant background, assuming that we would find differences between these groups. Participants were 1217 seventh-grade students in Germany. Multigroup structural equation analyses with latent variables revealed the differential importance of socialization contexts for the relation between academic self-efficacy and its sources across groups. For students of former Soviet Union and Turkish descent, verbal or social persuasion is the strongest contributing factor for academic self-efficacy, whereas for students without an immigrant background, it is mastery experience. In the school context, significant relationships between sources of self-efficacy and academic self-efficacy could only be observed for students without an immigrant background. The results both support and refine Bandura’s social cognitive theory by showing that self-related constructs function differently in students with culturally diverse immigrant backgrounds.

An Exploration of Critical Incidents Impacting Female Students’ Attitude Towards STEM Subjects

“…The spectrum of research in STEM over the world shows that cross-culturally, cross-nationally these factors can function and affect female student's STEM choice differently, making it important to understand each factor country and culture wise, and tailor the interventions and policies accordingly (Gebauer, M.M., 2021, Miralles-Cardona 2021. This paper supports this with a study of critical incidents reported by German school girls.…”

What cultural values determine student self-efficacy? An empirical study for 42 countries and economies

“…The identification of three cultural values (i.e., power distance, indulgence, and individualism) allows for a broader understanding of the complicated process and mechanisms that buffer the impact of cultural values on student self-efficacy. These findings also demonstrated that research on self-efficacy should take cultural differences into account ( Gebauer et al, 2021 ). Cross-country comparisons are not often feasible, but the function of cultural values should also be considered inside individual countries ( Bonneville-Roussy et al, 2019 ).…”

Understanding the interplay between text quality, writing self-efficacy and writing anxiety in learners with and without migration background

“…One possible explanation could be that students in lower track schools may assign little value to writing or have limited experience with writing which may result in uncalibrated self-perceptions. Results could also point to cross-cultural differences in academic self-efficacy, for instance, a study looking at sources of self-efficacy among students in Germany found that verbal and social persuasion appear to play a more important role than mastery experience in migrant students’ self-efficacy than in non-migrant students ( Gebauer et al, 2021 ). However, in a previous study, we also observed relatively positive self-efficacy beliefs among low-proficient EFL learners, which declined after a feedback intervention ( Busse et al, 2020 ).…”