The Relation of Self-Efficacy and Grade Goals to Academic Performance

Four studies were conducted to examine the relationship between academic self-efficacy and performance in college courses. Measures of academic grade goals and ability were also obtained. The first study was used to select valid items from a larger pool of self-efficacy measures. The items were further revised and the new item set was then tested out on the sample from study 4. A final set of items was selected and the resulting self-efficacy scale replicated on two other samples (studies 2 and 3). Self-efficacy was found to be significantly related to academic performance and to self-set academic grade goals. Grade goals and ability were also related to course performance. These results are consistent with laboratory studies of the relation of self-efficacy and goals to task performance.