‘I am enough!’ study of social self-efficacy in female AYA college students

Abstract

The Association of Adolescents and Child Care in India (AACCI; www.aacci.in) conducts multicentric studies on youth behavior in India using openly accessible psychometric tools. This study is part of a multi-centric youth project “Building Resilience in Youth;” we used Connolly’s (1989) Social Self-Efficacy Scale (SSES) to explore the relationship between social self-efficacy (SSE), an important soft skill for adolescents and young adults (AYAs), and several sociodemographic variables, including age, sibling status, academic course, engagement in extracurricular activities, perceived Internet/social media usage and dependence, substance use, and perception of control over one’s life. The study design was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2018 with 354 female AYAs aged 17 to 21 years from an all-women, multi-stream college in Delhi. The results showed that participants in the 17-19 age group had higher total SSES scores along with the Friendship/Intimacy, group, and Giving/Receiving Help subscales. Participants engaging in extracurricular competitions had a higher total SSES score including Assertiveness, Group, Public Performance, and Giving/Receiving Help subscales. Participants who had no siblings scored higher on the Friendship/Intimacy subscale. Participants competing in sports competitions score higher on the public performance subscale. All other demographic variables did not have a statistically significant relationship with the total and subscale SSES scores. The results allowed the management to conduct parent and student workshops. In addition, more studies are needed to qualitatively understand the role of age, extracurricular competitions, and sibling status on SSE with a more diverse sample