Social Persuasions in Math and their Prediction of STEM Courses Self-Efficacy in Middle School

The purpose of this study was to further clarify the structure of social persuasion as a source of self-efficacy in early adolescence and to examine the influence of social persuasion on STEM self-efficacy. Specifically, we proposed that social persuasion for math should be considered a multifactor construct for middle school students when predicting self-efficacy for STEM courses. Data were collected from 1,445 middle school students using a modified measure of social persuasions developed by Usher and Pajares (2009 Usher, E. L., & Pajares, F. (2009). Sources of self-efficacy in mathematics: A validation study. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(1), 89–101. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.09.002Crossref, Web of Science ® , Google Scholar) and self-efficacy for STEM courses developed by Hackett and Betz (1989 Hackett, G., & Betz, N. E. (1989). An exploration of the mathematics self-efficacy/mathematics performance correspondence. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 20(3), 261–273. doi:10.2307/749515Crossref, Web of Science ® , Google Scholar). Using factor analysis followed by structural equation modeling on two randomized samples, our findings indicate that family, peer, and courses/career persuasion in math are significant predictors of STEM courses self-efficacy, but not teacher persuasion. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.