Self-efficacy In Kids

Key points

• A child with high self-efficacy believes they have the skills to help them steer through life and reach their goals.
• Self-efficacy is about learning how to persevere during a challenge or setback.
• Experiencing setbacks and failure helps foster strong self-efficacy in children. Make sure your child is being challenged enough to experience setbacks and teach them how to learn from the obstacles.
• Help your child set realistic, short-term goals. These goals are more manageable, require frequent feedback and help foster strong self-efficacy.
• Praise effort and praise honestly. Praising ability rather than effort undermines motivation and performance.
• Help your child see their strengths during a setback so they learn to rely on their abilities and persist.
• Model self-efficacy to your child by sharing your own obstacles and efforts to work towards goals.

Self-efficacy is the belief that you are capable of performing a task or managing a situation. A child with high self-efficacy believes they have the skills to help them steer through life and reach their goals. Perhaps most importantly, self-efficacy is about learning how to persevere during a challenge or setback.

There are many ways parents can help nurture self-efficacy in a child.

Table 1: Ways of encouraging self-efficacy beliefs
Strategy	Example of what the teacher might say
Set goals with students, and get a commitment from them to reach the goals.	“By the end of the month, I want you to know all of the times table up to 25 × 25. Can I count on you to do that?”
Encourage students to compare their performance with their own previous performance, not with other students.	“Compare that drawing against the one that you made last semester. I think you’ll find improvements!”
Point out links between effort and improvement.	“I saw you studying for this test more this week. No wonder you did better this time!”
In giving feedback about performance, focus on information, not evaluative judgments.	“Part 1 of the lab write-up was very detailed, just as the assignment asked. Part 2 has a lot of good ideas in it, but it needs to be more detailed and stated more explicitly.”
Point out that increases in knowledge or skill happen gradually by sustained effort, not because of inborn ability.	“Every time I read another one of your essays, I see more good ideas than the last time. They are so much more complete than when you started the year.”