MEASURING SOCIAL SELF-EFFICACY IN A CULTURALLY DIVERSE STUDENT POPULATION

This paper reports the construction and validation of a measure of social self-efficacy in a range of social interaction situations commonly experienced by tertiary students, including situations posing special concern to recent arrivals to the Australian educational setting. Participants in the first study were 228 undergraduate students. Among these, 91 were Australia-born with English-speaking-background parents (Anglo-Australians), 90 were also Australia-born but had parents from a non-English-speaking-background (NESB Australia-born), and 47 were overseas-born with NESB parents (NESB immigrants). Item and factor analyses yielded a 20-item, 4-factors Social Self-Efficacy Scale for Students (SSESS). The four factors were Absence of Social Difficulties, Social Confidence, Sharing Interests, and Friendship Initiatives. Evidence of the scale's satisfactory internal consistency reliability, and its concurrent and construct validity is presented. Indication of satisfactory test-retest reliability was obtained from a second sample of 16 university students. Applications and directions for further research are discussed.