title: Self-efficacy is mainly genetic, not learned: a multiple-rater twin study on the causal structure of general self-efficacy in young people.
abstract: Social learning theory postulates that self-efficacy is learned through the person's interaction with his/her physical and social environment. In this genetically informative, population-based, multi-informant study of 1,394 adolescent twin pairs, self-efficacy was modeled as one latent psychometric self-efficacy factor with genetic and environmental effects common to all informants, as well as for effects specific for each informant. The results showed that 75% of variation in self-efficacy was due to genetic factors. Non-shared environmental causes explained the remaining 25% of the variance in the latent factor, with no effect of common environment. Some informant-specific effects were also found. The present study challenges the theoretical assumption of learning as the dominant etiological factor behind self-efficacy in young people.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Oslo, Norway. trine.waaktaar@r-bup.no
authors.forename: Trine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Waaktaar
authors.forename: Svenn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torgersen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009664:Norway; D011594:Psychometrics; D012042:Registries; D020377:Self Efficacy; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology