SELF CONFIDENCE FOREIGN STUDIES Study: 1 Aya Goto (2014) conducted a study on Maternal Confidence of Fukushima Mothers before and after the Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Northeast Japan: Analyses of Municipal Health Records. The present study focused on levels and associated factors of maternal confidence (one of the indicators used to evaluate Japan's national Maternal and Child Health Plan) before and after the accident. Comparing three samples of mothers with 18-month-old children in Fukushima City (218 in 2010; 300 in 2011, the year of the accident; and 188 in 2012) indicated that maternal confidence was lower in 2011 compared to 2010 and 2012. Interpersonal problems at home were significantly associated with lower maternal confidence in 2011, as well as increased depression in 2012. Other factors associated with lower maternal confidence across these 3 years were poorer perceived health and first-time motherhood. Suggested strategies include giving special attention to maternal confidence after nuclear disasters, as well as continuous monitoring of maternal confidence and a focus on mothers' interpersonal issues. Improving access to health information is one key to supporting maternal confidence after a disaster occurs. Study: 2 Aidin (2014) conducted a study on Foreign Students Self-Confidence in Learning Chinese.This survey study was aimed to inspect different amount of self-confidence experienced by foreign students in learning Chinese. Forty two students from the CICE (College of International Cultural Exchange) of CCNU (Central China Normal University), in Wuhan, in spring 2013, has been randomly given a questionnaire about their motivation, effort, self-confidence, and the subjective evaluation of the effect of their own native languages on their overall performance in Chinese. It was assumed that phonological similarity between learners’ native language and Chinese can enhance their self-confidence, and consequently, increase their performance. However, since processing an actual CLS (cross-language similarity) is beyond the scope of this study, and the perceptual similarity evaluation of individuals has shown to be inaccurate, the study has failed to find such relationship, and even found some negative links. Never the less, result shows a significant effect of the number of languages participant speak on their perceived performance. Also their perceived performance has a significantly positive correlation with some self-confidence components. Study: 3
Sadler (2013) conducted a study on The role of Self-confidence in Learning to Teach in Higher Education. The paper Analysed teacher self-confidence, which emerged as a theme within a wider study into the influences upon new academics' development as teachers over time. Three interviews took place, over a two-year period, with 11 new teachers from a range of higher education institutions and discipline areas. The first phase of analysis was the creation of detailed cases studies for three of the participants, of which one is reported in the current paper to illustrate the role of self-confidence in teacher development. The second phase used a thematic analysis of all interview transcripts. The new teachers' self-confidence appeared as a key influence in the use of teaching strategies that actively involved the students. Content knowledge and teaching skills were related to feelings of self-confidence, with "experience" being a key factor in the teachers' perceptions of their knowledge and skills. The findings hold implications for managers to ensure new staff have as familiar and stable teaching schedule as possible, and teacher developers to encourage dialogue and reflection in relation to the self-confidence and content knowledge of new teachers. Study: 4 Park (2012) conducted a study on Relationship between Technology, Parent Education, Self-Confidence, and Academic Aspiration of Hispanic Immigrant Students. This study utilized data from the TIMSS 2007. To compare the effect size of technology use, multigroup analyses of the path model were performed with Analysis of moment Structures. The result showed that later immigrated students' technology use is positively related to their mathematics performance. They may gain more benefits from technology use than moderately or early immigrated student groups. It is reasoned that later immigrated Hispanic students may reduce their learning hindrance associated with cultural barriers or limited English proficiency by using educational technology. Enhancement in the investment of educational technology into this subgroup may narrow the achievement gap between later immigrated, moderately immigrated, and early immigrated students. Study: 5 Kleitman (2011) conducted study on Meta cognitive Beliefs, Self-Confidence and Primary Learning Environment of Sixth Grade Students The present study examined the relationship between academic self-efficacy and perception of one's own competence in memory and reasoning abilities, and their role in predicting the Self-confidence trait. The study also aimed to determine the role of key classroom factors (goal orientation and self-efficacy with the teacher) in predicting self-beliefs, the Self-
confidence trait and academic achievement in Year 6 students (N = 177). EFA and Path analysis were used to determine these relationships. The hypothesized path model was tested in a simultaneous fashion of the entire system of variables to determine whether or not hypothesized relationships were consistent with data. The results suggest that academic selfefficacy and metacognitive competency beliefs define a broad factor--Metacognitive Beliefs-which serves as a key predictor of Self-confidence. Mastery goal-orientation and self-efficacy with teacher predicted metacognitive beliefs and, indirectly, Self-confidence. Students with stronger Metacognitive beliefs were less engaged in self-handicapping behaviours. Known common factors--intelligence, gender and a proxy for SES, school fees were controlled for. The present study has important implications for both metacognitive theory and educational practice. Study: 6 Mohammad Ali (2011) conducted a study on Moderating Effects of Self-Confidence and Sport Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Competitive Anxiety and Sport Performance. The aim of this study was to examine moderating effects of self-confidence and sport selfefficacy on the relationship between competitive anxiety and sport performance in a sample of Iranian athletes. A total of 246 volunteer athletes (149 males, 97 females) were included in this study. All participants were asked to complete Multidimensional Competitive Anxiety Questionnaire and Sport Self-Efficacy Scale. To measure the athletes’ sport performance, their coaches were asked to complete the Sport Achievement Scale. The results revealed that self-confidence and sport self-efficacy moderated the relationship between competitive anxiety and sport performance. Analysis of the data revealed that moderating effects of selfconfidence for the association of cognitive and somatic dimensions of competitive anxiety with sport performance were partial. On the other hand, the moderating effects of sport selfefficacy for the association of cognitive and somatic dimensions of competitive anxiety with sport performance were full. Study :7 Ravindra (2012) conducted a study on A Comparative study of Psycho-social Climate and self-confidence among Students of Professional and Non-Professional Courses. The present study aims to compare the status of perceived home environment and Selfconfidence among professional and non-professional courses with gender difference. The
sample consist 100 subjects 50 from professional course and 50 from non-professional course. For the data collection Home environment scale and self-confidence inventory was used. Two way ANOVA was used for determine the difference of dependant variable and also calculated mean score for actual differences. The result shows that students from professional course have better perceived the home environment than the non-professional course. But there is no gender difference of perception of home environment. The second dependant variable self-confidence was found in professional group but not high level. and also not gender difference of self-confidence. Study:8
Rodrigues (2009) conducted a study on Characterization of the negativism, activation, self-confidence and cognitive orientations levels of alpinists. The present study aims to characterize the levels of negativism, activation, self-confidence and cognitive orientation of different mountain sports’ participants, taking into account various variables (i.e. gender; age; years of experience; nationality; training and, specific sport). The sample was composed of 45 participants (40 male and 5 female) with an age range between 20 and 61 years of age (M=33, 91; SD= 8,97), who completed the Portuguese or English version of the CSAI-2 and TEOSQ questionnaires, according to their linguistic proficiency. The main results revealed that the variable ‘years of experience’ (and not age) correlated positively with the levels of self-confidence and task orientation. On the other hand, but in accordance with postulated theories, it was verified a positive association between the levels of negativism and ego orientation. Due to the relatively few studies done until today on this thematic and this type of samples, the results were discussed in relation to the respective theoretical models and specificities of this sport. Study: 9 Beckmann (2009) conducted a study on Self-Confidence and Performance Goal Orientation Interactively Predict Performance in a Reasoning Test with Accuracy Feedback. This study analysed individual differences' perspective on performance feedback effects in psychometric testing. A total of 105 students in a mainstream secondary school in North East England undertook a cognitive ability test on two occasions. In one condition, students received item-specific accuracy feedback while in the other (standard condition) no feedback was provided. While accuracy feedback had, on average, no effect on test performance, differential effects were observed. Performance goal orientation and self-
confidence moderated feedback effects on performance. The provision of accuracy feedback seemed to have performance optimising effects upon test takers with high performance goal orientation in combination with low self-confidence. Study: 10 Chang (2008) conducted a study on Science Achievement and Students' Self-Confidence and Interest in Science. The interrelationship between senior high school students' science achievement (SA) and their self-confidence and interest in science (SCIS) was explored with a representative sample of approximately 1,044 11th-grade students from 30 classes attending four high schools throughout Taiwan. Statistical analyses indicated that a statistically significant correlation existed between students' SA and their SCIS with a moderate effect size; the correlation is even higher with almost large effect sizes for a subsample of higherSCIS and lower-SCIS students. Results of t-test analysis also revealed that there were significant mean differences in students' SA and their knowledge (including physics, chemistry, biology, and earth sciences subscales) and reasoning skill subtests scores between higher-SCIS and lower-SCIS students, with generally large effect sizes. Stepwise regression analyses on higher-SCIS and lower-SCIS students also suggested that both students' SCIS subscales significantly explain the variance of their SA, knowledge, and reasoning ability with large effect sizes.
