Physical self-efficacy and academic level as predictors of university maladjustment

Abstract

Selfâ??efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to manage prospective situations. The goal of this study was to examine the influence of self-efficacy, academic level and gender in predicting university maladjustment. A total of 200 undergraduate students (100 male and 100 female) with ages ranging from 16 to 50 years and a mean age of 22.5 years and from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds from the University of Lagos in Nigeria participated in the study. They completed two instruments- the Physical Self-efficacy (PSE) and the University maladjustment scales. It was hypothesized that students with a high sense of self-efficacy and those in higher academic levels will be better adjusted as well as males having a higher sense of self-efficacy than females. Although males had higher self-efficacy than females, the difference was not significant and neither was there gender differences in the area of maladjustment. Another finding was that there was an inverse relationship between physical self-efficacy and maladjustment. The implication of this is that as physical self-efficacy increases, university adjustment increases, in other words, maladjustment decreases. Recommendations that people must have a robust sense of personal efficacy to sustain the perseverant effort needed to succeed were made.