The Role of Gender in Research Self-efficacy of Nursing Students

Background & Aim: Research in the field of health is essential for the development of health care and plays a central role in medical sciences. Accordingly this study was undertaken to determine research self-efficacy of female and male nursing students in higher education. Material & Methods: It was a descriptive, cross sectional study. The research population was nursing students of higher education in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences in academic year of 2013-2014. Simple random sampling was used to recruit the students. Data was collected by Phillips & Russell Research Self Efficacy (RSE) questionnaire and analyzed by Independent- sample t -test and Two- way ANOVA using SPSS-PC (v.20). Results: The results showed that the male and female students were situated upper than the standard average in terms of self-efficacy of writing skills, practical research skills, quantitative and computer skills, research design skills and total research self- efficacy. There was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of self-efficacy of design skills, self-efficacy of practical research skills, self-efficacy of quantitative and computer skills, self-efficacy of writing skills, and total research self-efficacy ( p >0.05). No significant relationship was found between the interaction of gender and interest in research, and research self-efficacy (F =1/21, P=0/27). However, the singular role of interest in research and research self-efficacy was significant (F =7/63, P=0/006). Conclusions: Future research is recommended to be undertaken to study the relationship between research self-efficacy and factors such as educational environment, scientific motivation and research products.