Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure the self-efficacy of elementary school children’s health behavior, in which finishing school lunch and brushing teeth were specifically focused upon, and to examine the reliability and validity of the scale. In addition, the relationship between the measured self-efficacy and the stage of change was investigated.
Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted to measure the level of self-efficacy among 880 elementary school children. After applying a factor analysis to the questionnaire answers, the reliability and construct validity of the questionnaire were estimated according to the internal consistency, the repeatability of scale score, and the confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the relationship between the scale score and the re-categorized stage of change was investigated using a one-way analysis of variance.
Results: The factor analysis of the self-efficacy scale indicated that six items for finishing school lunch and four items for brushing teeth were effective. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for finishing school lunch and brushing teeth were 0.81 and 0.81, respectively. The correlation factor of the scale score by retest (Pearson’s r ) proved a high level of repeatability; r for finishing school lunch was 0.84 and r for brushing teeth was 0.67(p<0.01). The excellent goodness-of-fit indices were obtained by the confirmatory factor analysis. (finishing scool lunch: GFI=0.974, AGFI=0.961, CFI=0.966, RMSEA=0.055, brushing teeth: GFI=0.981, AGFI=0.961, CFI=0.976, RMSEA=0.062) The ANOVA revealed that the self-efficacy scores differed significantly across the re-categorized stages and the scale score increased as the stages progressed. (finishing scool lunch: F (2/846)= 155.16, brushing teeth: F(2/791) = (2/791)= 50.98, p<0.01)
Conclusions: The statistical analysis proved the reliability and validity of the proposed scale to measure the self- efficacy of the elementary school children’s health behavior with regard to finishing school lunch and brushing teeth. The relationship between the self-efficacy and the stage of change supports the original hypothesis.
