title: Music therapy career aptitude and generalized self-efficacy in music therapy students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While the Music Therapy Career Aptitude Test (MTCAT) provides a measure of student aptitude, measures of perceived self-efficacy may provide additional information about a students' suitability for a music therapy career.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  As a first step in determining whether future studies examining combined scores from the MTCAT and the Generalized Self-Efficacy (GSE) scale would be useful to help predict academic success in music therapy, we explored the internal reliability of these two measures in a sample of undergraduate students, and the relationship (concurrent validity) of the measures to one another.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty undergraduate music therapy students (14 male; 66 female) completed the MTCAT and GSE. To determine internal reliability we conducted tests of normality and calculated Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha for each measure. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to ascertain the strength of the relationship between the MTCAT and GSE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MTCAT scores were normally distributed and had high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.706). GSE scores were not normally distributed, but had high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.748). The correlation coefficient analysis revealed that MTCAT and GSE scores were moderately correlated ((r = 0.426, p < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MTCAT scores can be used to partially determine perceived self-efficacy in undergraduate music therapy students; however, a more complete picture of student suitability for music therapy may be determined by administering the GSE alongside the MTCAT. Future studies are needed to determine whether combined MTCAT and GSE scores can be used to predict student success in an undergraduate music therapy program.
authors.affiliation: Oral Roberts University University of Incarnate Word hlim@ora.edu.
authors.forename: Hayoung A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Oral Roberts University University of Incarnate Word.
authors.forename: Cathy M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Befi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016390:Allied Health Occupations / Q000592:standards*; D001077:Aptitude Tests / Q000592:standards*; D002321:Career Choice; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009147:Music Therapy / Q000193:education*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology
keywords: career aptitude; music therapy; self-efficacy