Youth Leadership Development Self-Efficacy: An Exploratory Study Involving a New Construct

Abstract

Supported by Bandura’s social cognitive theory, our study examined personal factors and environmental factors that impact adults’ ability to assist youth in developing leadership. We introduce youth leadership development self-efficacy (YLD-SE) as a new construct for use in leadership research. A 7-item scale to measure YLD-SE was developed and its psychometric properties were established through exploratory factor analysis. The study sought to investigate the YLD-SE of agricultural education teachers, determine the relationship that YLD-SE has with selected variables, and determine the predictors of YLD-SE. Participants were agricultural education teachers (N = 177) in [Midwestern state] who taught during the 2005-2006 school year. Results showed that teachers perceive they have a high level of YLD-SE, and hierarchical regression analysis revealed that transformational and laissez-faire leadership style were significant predictors of YLD-SE. The full model explained 25% of the variance in YLD-SE.