Self-Efficacy and Mathematics Performance: Reciprocal Relationships

Several studies have looked at either the effects of students’ Self-Efficacy Expectations (SEE) on their mathematics performance results, or the effect of previous mathematics performances on students’ SEE. Few studies have tested the theoretically proposed reciprocal relationship between mathematics SEE and performance in mathematics. Furthermore, previous studies have not included levels of difficulty, although this is an integral part of the definition of SEE. This study applied a new measure of SEE, which included both test taking facets and levels of perceived difficulty, to investigate their relationships with students’ performance on a national test in mathematics. Two models gave very good fit to the data, and supported the reciprocal effects model. These models provided estimates of the relationships between students’ test performance and their level and facet-specific SEE, respectively.