Browsing by Author "Eerolainen, Eemeli"

Aims. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between adolescents’ academic self-efficacy and their family structure, estimated income and estimated quality of parent-child-relationship. Self-efficacy, also known as one’s trust in their own capabilities, is a fundamental source of human motivation. It is positively related to persistence, stress control and performance, all of which support success in school. Earlier studies have shown that family background is related to adolescent’s academic self-efficacy and academic performance. Methods. The data was collected with questionnaires as a part of Mind the Gap -project during spring 2014. The participants (N = 1316) were 13–14-year-old students from elementary schools of the metropolitan area of Finland. Academic self-efficacy was measured of six different school subjects. The estimated income was evaluated in general and in relation to friends. The estimated parent-child-relationship was evaluated in relation to mum and dad seperately. The instruments were based on questionnaries used in previous research. I used one-way analysis of variance to examine, whether there were differences in the levels of academic self-efficacy between groups based on family structure, income and parent-child-relationship. I also used regression analysis to see, whether family structure, evaluated income and evaluated quality of parent-child-relationship predicts the variation of academic self-efficacy. Results and conclusions. Adolescents from intact families had higher level of academic self-efficacy than adolescents from blended families or single parent families. Adolescents who evaluated their income higher had higher level of academic self-efficacy than adolescents with low or mediocre evaluation of income. Adolescents who evaluated their parent-child-relationship higher had higher level of academic self-efficacy than adolescents with poor or mediocre evaluation of parent-child-relationship. Family structure, estimated income and estimated parent-child-relationship predicted academic self-efficacy, but not strongly. The results were similar to earlier findings. The results suggest that adolescents from certain backgrounds might be in greater need of support of their academic self-efficacy. This should be noticed by the school and the caretakers.