1997/07/01 by Frank Pajares, Gio Valiante · 2 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Creativity in Education and Neuroscience #Education, Achievement, and Giftedness #Writing and Handwriting Education
paper · doi:10.1080/00220671.1997.10544593
crossref issued 1997/07/01 · crossref published 1997/07/01 · crossref published-print 1997/07/01 · openalex publication_date 1997/07/01 · crossref created 2012/11/14 · crossref deposited 2025/04/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Path analysis was used to test the influence of writing self-efficacy, writing apprehension, perceived usefulness of writing, and writing aptitude on the essay-writing performance of 218 fifth-grade students. A model that also included sex accounted for 64% of the variance in performance. As hypothesized, self-efficacy beliefs made an independent contribution to the prediction of performance despite the expected powerful effect of writing aptitude. Aptitude also had a strong direct effect on self-efficacy, which mediated the indirect effect of aptitude on performance. Self-efficacy had direct effects on apprehension and perceived usefulness. Girls and boys did not differ in performance, but girls reported higher writing self-efficacy, found writing more useful, and had lower apprehension. Results support the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory.