SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS AND GENERAL MENTAL-ABILITY IN MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING

Path analysis was used to test the influence of math self-efficacy and general mental ability on the math problem-solving performance of 329 high school studnets. A model that also included math anxiety, gender, and math level accounted for 60% of the variance in performance. Ability and self-efficacy had strong direct effects on performance. Ability also had a strong direct effect on self-efficacy, which mediated the indirect effect of ability and level on performance. Self-efficacy had a strong direct effect on anxiety, which had a weak direct effect on performance. Although girls and boys did not differ in self=efficacy, girls reported higher anxiety. Most students were overconfident about their math capability. Results support the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.