Date of Award

January 2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

First Advisor

Kara Wettersten

Abstract

The present study explored the development and initial validation of a measure of doctoral student self-efficacy for students in Health Profession Training (HPT) programs. There is a gap in existing scales that measure the full spectrum of tasks that contribute to doctoral self-efficacy. The scales that do exist focus on broad self-efficacy (Chen et al., 2001) or program-specific self-efficacy in one area (Stump et al., 2012; Van Horn & Christman, 2017; Lent et al., 2003). Our purpose was to develop and provide initial norming and validity information for the Self-Efficacy of Applied Doctoral Students (SEADS) Scale. The SEADS was developed following Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT, Bandura, 1991), William’s (2005) article that defines three areas of doctoral self-efficacy (academics, research, and social), and our addition of clinical and DEI factors). The SEADS assesses HPT doctoral student self-efficacy across six domains of graduate school: research skills, clinical skills, peer relationships, advisor relationships, clinical supervisor relationships, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). From the exploratory analyses of the SEADS, an orthogonal six-factor structure emerged, which accounted for 56% of the total variance. This factor structure was representative of the six domains of HPT doctoral student self-efficacy (Clinical Self-Efficacy, DEI Self-Efficacy, Advisor Relationship Self-Efficacy, Research Self-Efficacy, Peer Relationship Self-Efficacy, and Clinical Supervisor Relationship Self-Efficacy). Cronbach’s alpha levels ranged from .916 to .966. Overall, the corresponding factors of the SEADS demonstrated moderate to strong convergent validity with several measures of general and specific self-efficacy. The SEADS also demonstrated appropriate divergent validity with the Social Desirability Scale-17 (Stöber, 2001). Limitations of the SEADS include the length of the measure, positive skew of the data, and the majority of participants identifying as White, heterosexual, cisgender women and enrolled in doctoral programs in psychology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. When further norming is completed, the SEADS will be a useful tool for measuring and intervening within specific domains of HPT doctoral student self-efficacy.

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