The Self-efficacy Questionnaire for School Situations: Development and Psychometric Evaluation

Following Bandura's theory, a Self-efficacy Questionnaire for School Situations (SEQ-SS) was developed to assess the cognitions of school refusers. The instrument contains twelve school-related situations which are rated by children according to their belief about their ability to cope with each situation. Factor analysis yielded two reliable factors labelled Academic/Social Stress and Separation/Discipline Stress. Psychometric evaluation also revealed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Total self-efficacy scores for 135 school refusers ranged from very low to very high. Self-efficacy was highest with regard to doing school work and lowest with regard to answering peers' questions about absences. The clinical utility of the SEQ-SS is discussed, with implications for the selection of cognitive and behavioural treatment procedures. The application of the instrument in future research is also considered.