Confidence to Manage Learning: The Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulated Learning of Early Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This study examined the self-efficacy for self-regulated learning of 146 early adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD). Results from the study showed that a 7-item self-regulatory efficacy measure demonstrated factorial invariance for the adolescent sample and also for a validation sample of 208 undergraduates with and without LD. Adolescents with LD rated their self-regulatory efficacy and reading self-efficacy lower than their NLD peers. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that self-regulatory efficacy made a significant contribution to end-of-term English grade after controlling for sex, SES, reading self-efficacy, and reading score. Finally, students with LD who scored low on self-regulatory efficacy were significantly more likely than their higher-scoring LD peers to have a low end-of-term English grade, although there was no difference on a reading performance score. Several suggestions for teachers working with adolescents with LD are provided, along with directions for future research.

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