Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Self-Efficacy Scale for Treatment Acceptance (SESTA), which measures the individual's strength of self-efficacy for receiving medical treatment. The SESTA was developed using the items which were collected from previous research and were judged to have content validity. Factor structure and reliability were examined using data from 256 university students for healthy control and 61 psychiatric outpatients. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the 11-item SESTA consisted of a single factor. The alpha coefficients for the SESTA were .91 and .93 for the two samples respectively. The Self-esteem scale and the SDS were administered to the patient group. Significant correlations were obtained between SESTA score and Self-esteem score, and between SESTA score and SDS score, suggesting high validity and clinical utility for the SESTA. The SESTA developed in this study can be used as a screening tool in medical settings based on behavioral medicine approach. It might be especially useful when patients receive medical treatment for a long period and show difficulties to maintain their motivation to receive continuous treatment. The clinical usefulness of SESTA was discussed.
