Self-Efficacy and Future Adult Roles: Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Perceptions

Abstract

While previous studies have examined perceptions of self-efficacy, relatively few have focused upon how such perceptions develop during the adolescent years. Using a national sample of high school seniors, this study examines the nature of adolescents’ perceptions of self-efficacy; as such perceptions are related to future spousal, parental, and worker roles. Building upon a framework of life-course and ecological theories, both familial and individuals factors are shown to be significantly associated with perceptions of self-efficacy among adolescents. Among boys, risk-taking behaviors, such as alcohol consumption and delinquency, are shown to be linked to perceptions of self-efficacy. Among girls, an interweave between future spousal and parental roles is suggested. The implications of these findings, as well as directions for future research, are discussed. Throughout the late adolescent years, young people begin to consider the various adult statuses and roles which they could eventually occupy. In doing so, they typically weigh the combination of their own interests, aspirations, and experiences as they attempt to formulate a path for their futures (Erikson, 1968). Adolescence is generally recognized as a stage of life in which individuals are not only undergoing a substantial amount of physical, cognitive, and emotional change (Milyavskaya et al., 2009), but a time during which young people attempt to transition into the adult sphere, involving the need to make decisions about educational goals (e.g., Lui et al., 2014), occupational goals (e.g., Blustein, 2006), and familial goals, such as whether to marry and/or have children (e.g., Blair, 2010). Aside from recognizing these goals and understanding what is necessary in order to achieve them, adolescents need to have some degree of confidence about their abilities to function in those same goals (McKay et al., 2014). This involves the development of self-efficacy, which is generally recognized as “a person’s beliefs about his/her abilities to take actions necessary to perform a behavior successfully” (Bandura, 1997). While researchers have often examined the goals and aspirations of youth, comparatively less attention has been directed to the issue of adolescents’ perceptions of self-efficacy, particularly as such relate to future goals and statuses (see Peguero and Shaffer, 2015). Journal of Sociology and Social Work, Vol. 5(1), June 2017 18 Understandably, perceptions of self-efficacy can have a substantial impact upon an individual’s motivations, not only in regard to their performance within a given role, but also in terms of regarding it as a realistic and achievable goal (Bandura and Barbaranelli, 1996). In this study, we will examine the nature of adolescents’ perceptions of self-efficacy, as these pertain to self-efficacy within the future roles of being a spouse, a parent, and a worker. An examination of adolescents’ perceptions of self-efficacy should provide a greater understanding of how the development of goals and aspirations occurs in those crucial years. Adolescents’ Goals and Self-Efficacy During the adolescent years, individuals begin to consider the various adult statuses and roles which they believe to be desirable for their adult lives. Educational attainment and occupational/career goals are central among these, as adolescents begin to weigh their abilities and strengths relative to future possibilities (Schneider and Stevenson, 1999). Of course, such goals do not develop within a vacuum, rather, the development of goals will involve social interactions within the broader range of adolescents’ lives, such as those with parents, peers, and teachers. As a consequence of these interactions and personal experiences, adolescents will increasingly attempt to formulate more precise conceptualizations of their educational and occupational goals (Kerpelman and Schvaneveldt, 1999). Through the combination of family influences, peer influence, role models, and their own experiences, adolescents will develop a greater congruence between their goal aspirations and their actual pursuit of a given goal (Reynolds et al., 2006). Familial goals, like other adult goals formulated during the adolescent years, develop through the exposure to role models, interactions with others, and direct experiences. Not surprisingly, researchers continue to call for greater research on the developmental processes involved in marital and parenthood goals of adolescents (e.g., Willoughby, 2010). Adolescents, for the most part, continue to have a positive view of marriage, regarding it as a lifetime commitment wherein divorce is considerable an undesirable outcome (Gatins et al., 2013; Martin et al., 2003). Despite their awareness of the complications and problems associated with marriage and parenthood, most adolescents hope to have a good marriage (Johnston et al., 2001). As adolescents are formulating goals concerning marriage, parenthood, or occupations, they will certainly be affected by their own sense of efficacy in these arenas. Researchers have repeatedly shown that adolescents with a stronger sense of efficacy tend to more readily take on challenges and establish a clear, logical path to achieving their goals (Skinner et al., 1998). Even during the adolescent years, it is reasonable to assume that individuals will use perceptions of self-efficacy in future roles as a basis for formulating aspirations for those same roles. As stated by Bandura and Barbaranelli (1996: 1206): “unless people believe that they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act.” The importance of perceptions of self-efficacy is further underscored by the manners in which they can potentially affect how the individual responds to difficulties encountered in achieving a goal, develops a sense of motivation and commitment to goals, and how well the individual can accurately attribute successes and failures along the way (Bandura, 1997). Once a goal has been specified to a high extent, individuals are prone to giving that goal greater priority, and maintain a higher level of commitment and motivation to achieving the goal (Locke and Latham, 2006). Generally, adolescents who have high performance goals tend to have higher levels of self-efficacy (Pintrich, 2000). Hence, self-efficacy can readily affect both goal motivations and eventual outcomes (Bandura and Locke, 2003). Like adolescents’ goals, their perceptions of self-efficacy tend to be oriented toward a specific outcome (Bandura, 1997). For example, a higher perception of occupational self-efficacy has been shown to quite influential in regards to the development of adult career paths (Taylor and Popma, 1990). As stated previously, self-efficacy can be derived from a variety of relationships and experiences in the lives of adolescents. The work experiences of adolescents, for example, can have a significant effect upon the development of occupational self-efficacy and eventual work goal attainment for young people (e.g., Staff and Mortimer, 2007). Despite the sometimes onerous and manual labor-intensive nature of many jobs held by teenagers (e.g., fast food cook, bagging groceries), the sum of such experiences can aid in the development of future occupational goals and the self-efficacy associated with such goals (Reynolds et al., 2006). Perceptions of self-efficacy concerning familial goals also tend to be specific to a given goal, such as being a spouse or being a parent. Researchers have addressed these forms of self-efficacy, but have typically done with adult samples. Self-Efficacy and Future Adult Roles: Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Perceptions 19 Parental self-efficacy is generally considered to involve the confidence and competence which an individual perceives about their own abilities to care for their child, in regard to physical, emotional, and cognitive needs (see Jones and Prinz, 2005). Child outcomes are an essential part of parental self-efficacy, as it also involves individuals’ beliefs that they can meaningfully control and influence children’s behavior, along with the environment in which such behavior occurs, so as to result in the positive development of children (Ardelt and Eccles, 2001). Parental self-efficacy thus involves a combination of knowledge about how to effectively raise a child, as well as having confidence in one’s ability to apply that knowledge (Bandura, 1997). Studies of parental self-efficacy have shown that having greater self-efficacy is associated with higher parental satisfaction (Brage et al., 2001) and greater involvement with their children (Fagan and Barnett, 2003). Researchers have called for examinations of how parental self-efficacy develops prior to actually becoming a parent (Biehle and Mickelson, 2011). Spousal self-efficacy may develop in a similar manner to that of parental self-efficacy. In an effort to better delineate adolescents’ perspectives on marriage, Carroll et al. (2009) posited that teens typically develop three distinct types of marital attitudes, which include: 1) marital importance, 2) desired marital timing, and 3) the criteria for marriage readiness. As adolescents are evaluating their own marriage readiness, such evaluations will obviously entail perceptions of self-efficacy within the spousal role. However, such perceptions of self-efficacy may also entail differences based upon gender. Gender and Self-Efficacy A strong consensus exists that gender remains a salient factor in the developmental processes involved in the formation of future goals and statuses. In terms of future occupations and careers, adolescent males tend to prefer jobs with greater authority, greater responsibility, and higher incomes (Konrad et al., 2000). Adolescent females, on the other hand, tend to prefer jobs which afford them more opportunities to help others, as well as jobs which allow them greater flexibility to attend to family responsibilitie