Role of self-efficacy and task-value in predicting college students' course performance and future enrollment intentions

Predictive utility of self-efficacy and task-value beliefs was compared among 168 Korean female college students. The study assessed the constructs longitudinally and attempted consolidation of self-efficacy and expectancy-value theories. Self-efficacy perceptions were assessed at varying levels of measurement specificity. Exploratory factor analyses showed that self-efficacy items were reliably differentiated into separate factors of a priori specificity. These self-efficacy factors were positively correlated among themselves and, with an exception of problem-specific self-efficacy, also with the task-value factor. A correlation coefficient between any two self-efficacy factors tended to decrease, as these factors were associated with increasingly different measurement levels. Path analysis showed that students' mid-term scores and enrollment intentions at T1 were better predicted by the task-value factor. However, the typically stronger links of self-efficacy to performance and of task value to intentions were observed with T2 variables. (C) 2001 Academic Press.