Relationship between Life Skills and General Self-efficacy. Validation of HVD-A scale

Abstract

World Health Organization’s approach was one of the most comprehensive frameworks in categorizing the essential skills for youth, creating the 10 Daily Life Skills Education. There is a scarcity of instruments for Life Skills assessment. For this reason, Daily Life Skills Education Questionnaire for Adolescents (HVD-A) scale was created to assess 10 Daily Life Skills as a global construct under the positive psychology framework. The objective of this work was to analyze the relationships between Life Skills and General Self-Efficacy, finding additional evidence for the validity of the HVD-A scale across sex and age. A sample of 1,507 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old filled the HVD-A scale and the General Self-efficacy scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes were carried out to evaluate the original model fit in different samples. A unifactorial model showed adequate fit to the data. The SEM analysis showed a significant association between Life Skills and General Self-efficacy. In some items, the HVD-A scale may underestimate the scores in girls of middle-late adolescence. The usefulness and implications of the instrument for the scientific and applied field of psychology and education are debated.