Ability Versus Action Self-Efficacy as Differential Predictors of Learning Engagement among Chinese Top-Up Degree Students
We compared ability self-efficacy (confidence in academic ability) and action self-efficacy (confidence in carrying out study strategies) as predictors of learning engagement in a cross-sectional survey of Chinese top-up degree students. Items were adapted from a Chinese learner-characteristics scale to fit the top-up degree context. Of 363 collected questionnaires, 25 straight-line or invariant responses were removed, leaving 338 for analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis fit a three-factor measurement model well, and chi-square difference tests kept the three constructs separate despite their high latent correlations. A common method bias check suggested that no single factor explained the covariance among the indicators. In the structural model, ability self-efficacy predicted engagement significantly (β = 0.685, P < 0.001); action self-efficacy did not (β = 0.197, P = 0.097). A Wald test separated the two coefficients on the unstandardized scale (z = 6.71, P < 0.001) but reached only marginal significance on the standardized scale (z = 2.03, P = 0.043). The model explained 73.1% of the variance in engagement. On balance, confidence in academic capability emerges as the more proximal driver of engagement, though the standardized gap between the two dimensions was small.
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