Exercise of Personal Agency Through the Self-Efficacy Mechanism

Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the empirical justification for distinguishing between perceptions of behavioral coping ability and perceptions of cognitive control coping ability for handling environmental challenges. Twenty-four measures of perceived personal effectiveness were collected from 739 young adults, including measures of perceived ability to have a social impact, assertiveness, leadership style, and dating competence. These items were submitted to a hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis in a random half of the sample. As expected, two empirically well-justified second order factors were obtained reflecting perceived cognitive control and behavioral coping strategies. This factor structure was cross-validated in the other half of the sample, and separately for males and females, with all hypothesized features confirmed. Literature on coping strategies, on sex role differences and on self-efficacy predictors is cited as support for distinguishing between perceived cognitive control and perceived behavioral coping abilities. Implications of this distinction for elucidating developmental patterns of drug use.