Longitudinal examination of personal self-efficacy and engagement-related attributes: How do they relate

A synthesis of the contemporary literature indicates that longitudinal examination of self-efficacy beliefs in educational contexts has been limited to a few notable studies. The present study, utilizing a longitudinal research design, makes attempts to explore the distal impact of students' enactive learning experiences on their academic self-efficacy beliefs. More importantly, apart from this research focus, we also examine the interrelations between self-efficacy and three major motivation-related attributes of engagement (e.g., absorption) on students' achievement outcomes in the subject mathematics. This avenue of inquiry, for example, stipulates motivation-related attributes of engagement as potential consequences and antecedents of self-efficacy beliefs. 326 Year 10 students (185 girls, 141 boys) participated in this investigation. We administered a number of Likert-scale questionnaires on multiple occasions over a two-year period, using SEM to analyze the repeated data. MPlus 7.11 yielded some key findings for discussion and educational consideration, for example: the positive influence of Time 1 enactive learning experience on Time 2 self-efficacy and Time 3 motivation-related attributes of engagement; and the positive influence of Time 2 and Time 4 self-efficacy beliefs on Time 5 achievement outcomes. Finally, evidence obtained indicated the mediating mechanisms of both self-efficacy and motivation-related attributes.