Self-efficacy in adults with and without learning disabilities

grantor: University of TorontoAcademic self-efficacy of post-secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) and of normally-achieving (NA) students was studied using ability and achievement tasks. Predicted and obtained scores were gathered on nine subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) and on all three subtests of the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R). Self-efficacy was measured by students' predictions of their relative performance on these subtests. Based upon Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory, I predicted that: (a) the NA group would tend to overestimate its performance whereas the group with LD would tend to underestimate or have realistic expectations in areas where the latter group perceived failure, and (b) the group with LD, in its perceived nondeficit areas, would tend to respond in a similar manner to the NA group. Overestimation, underestimation, and realistic estimation were measured by the difference between predicted and obtained subtest scores. Initial analyses compared the NA group and the total group with LD. Supplementary analyses were then performed using groups with LD that were high and low in severity as measured by three factor scores: Decoding, Reading Comprehension, and Arithmetic. Significant interactions among Groups by Predicted/Observed scores by Tests were found on the WRAT-R and WAIS-R. As expected, in areas of perceived disability for the group with LD, the NA group tended to overestimate its ability relative to the group with LD, and on the WAIS-R performance subtests, estimations of the group with LD generally resembled those of the NA group. Implications are discussed for self-efficacy research, subtyping of groups with LD, and remediation in educational and counselling contexts.Ed.D