Perceived overall self-efficacy and motivation to learn in high school teenagers

Abstract

Self-efficacy is the belief each one has about their performance abilities. Motivation to learn is considered an important con-struct that encourages individuals to perform their tasks. This study aimed to verify the correlation between self-efficacy and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in teenagers, investigating potential differences related to gender and age-younger (14 to 16 years) and older (17 to 19 years) teenagers. 296 adolescents from 14 to 19 years old (M=16.03; SD=0.96) participated in the study, 57% female, 66% were students from public schools and 34% from private schools. The instruments used were: a sociodemographic data questionnaire, the Perceived General Self-Efficacy Scale and the Scale for Evaluation of Motivation to Learn for high school students. Descriptive analyses, Pearson correlation and Student's t-test for independent samples were performed. The results indicated a positive correlation between self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, and a negative correlation between self-efficacy and extrinsic motivation. Girls showed higher averages in intrinsic motivation and boys higher averages in extrinsic motivation. Male participants achieve higher means of self-efficacy when compared to girls, and there was no statistically significant difference regarding age. The establishing of strategies in schools is important, once self-efficacy and motivation can interfere in the teenagers' learning process.