LATENT STRUCTURE OF THE SOURCES OF MATHEMATICS SELF-EFFICACY

General social cognitive theory and its career-specific elaborations p osit four primary sources through which self-efficacy beliefs are acqu ired and modified: personal performance accomplishments, vicarious lea rning, social persuasion, and physiological states and reactions. We p resent two studies exploring the dimensionality of these sources withi n the context of career-relevant mathematics activities. In Study 1, 2 95 college students completed measures of the source variables. Testin g two- through five-factor models, we found strongest support for a fo ur-factor latent structure of the efficacy sources. In Study 2, involv ing 481 high school students, a five-factor model fit the data well. W e also found evidence of a higher order factor structure in both sampl es. Several directions for further research on the sources of efficacy information are considered, along with implications for career and ac ademic interventions. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.