Psychometric evaluation of the self-efficacy questionnaire for children (SEQ-C): validation among Chinese children and adolescents

The Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) is a well-established measure of self-efficacy including three specific task demands, that is, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and emotional self-efficacy. The present study examined the applicability of the SEQ-C for measuring children's self-efficacy in a Chinese population. The sample was comprised of 1491 students in Grade 4 to 11 (boys = 52.8%; mean age = 13.0 years) in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the factor structure of the SEQ-C. Also, bivariate correlations between SEQ-C and children's prosocial behavior, bullying behavior and victimized experience were tested to reflect the convergent validity of the SEQ-C. The results revealed that a modified 20-item Chinese version of the SEQ-C had excellent internal consistency reliability, good construct validity, overall acceptable convergent validity and measurement invariance across gender and school level. Only minor adaptions were necessary, and the rationale for making these adjustments was based on both content and performance of the measure. In addition to the cross-cultural validation, this study has extended the age range of the target users (14 to 17 years) by confirming the suitability of the SEQ-C for age groups spanning primary and secondary school children aged between 9 and 18 years. For those working and doing research in schools, this validation study increases confidence in the use of the Chinese SEQ-C and its subscales for identifying children's self-efficacy in specific domains and for conducting research on interventions where self-efficacy is an important predictor or outcome.

Automated summary

This study examined the applicability of the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) in a Chinese population. The results revealed that a modified Chinese version of the SEQ-C had good reliability and validity, and it was suitable for primary and secondary school children aged between 9 and 18 years.