Key result
The six-item short form of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-6) demonstrated good reliability and significantly predicted mental health after 28 months (b=0.49) in patients at risk for heart failure.
Why the study?
Does the 6-item short form of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-6) demonstrate acceptable reliability and validity compared to the original 10-item scale in non-clinical and clinical samples?
Observational (n=21,179)
Yes
Does the 6-item short form of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-6) demonstrate acceptable reliability and validity compared to the original 10-item scale in non-clinical and clinical samples?
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
The 6-item short form of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-6) is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing general self-efficacy, offering a 40% reduction in length for large multivariate studies.
OBJECTIVE: General self-efficacy has been found to be an influential variable related to the adaptation to stress and chronic illness, with the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) Scale by Jerusalem and Schwarzer being a reliable and valid instrument to assess this disposition. The aim of this study was to construct and test a short form of this scale to allow for a more economical assessment of the construct. METHODS: The item characteristics of the original scale were assessed using an intercultural non-clinical sample (n=19,719). Six items with the highest coefficient of variation and good discrimination along the range of the trait were selected to build a short form of the instrument (GSE-6). Subsequently, the psychometric properties and the concurrent and predictive validity of the GSE-6 were tested in a longitudinal design with three measurements using a sample of patients with risk factors for heart failure (n=1,460). RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha for the GSE-6 was between .79 and .88. We found negative associations with symptoms of depression (-.35 and -.45), anxiety (-.35), and vital exhaustion (-.38) and positive associations with social support (.30), and mental health (.36). In addition, the GSE-6 score was positively associated with active problem-focused coping (.26) and distraction/self-encouragement (.25) and negatively associated with depressive coping (-.34). The baseline GSE-6 score predicted mental health and physical health after 28 months, even after controlling for the respective baseline score. The relative stability over twelve and 28 months was r=.50 and r=.60, respectively, while the mean self-efficacy score did not change over time. CONCLUSIONS: The six item short form of the GSE scale is a reliable and valid instrument that is useful for the economical assessment of general self-efficacy in large multivariate studies and for screening purposes.
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Romppel et al. (2013) conducted an observational in Risk factors for heart failure and non-clinical populations (n=21,179). General Self-Efficacy Scale short form (GSE-6) was evaluated on Prediction of mental health summary score after 28 months (b=0.49, 95% CI 0.29-0.70, p=<0.001). The six-item short form of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-6) demonstrated good reliability and significantly predicted mental health after 28 months (b=0.49) in patients at risk for heart failure.
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