Chapter 4: The Impact of Perceived Family Efficacy Beliefs on Adolescent Development

Self-efficacy beliefs play a pervasive influence in many contexts of an adolescent’s life, including school, sport, career decisions, and health functioning. Indeed, these beliefs are at the root of human agency. Adolescents do not undertake tasks they feel are beyond their abilities, nor are they inclined to pursue ambitious goals and persevere in the face of difficulties unless they believe they can produce desired results. Instead, the more convinced they are that they can deal with situations effectively, the more they seize opportunities and the better they express their talents, thus increasing the probability of their success and well-being.

Adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs are not by themselves sufficient to ensure the achievement of goals that exceed individual talent. Instead, self-efficacy results from sharing knowledge and responsibility, multiple interconnections, mutual obligations, and concerted actions with others. In contexts calling on social interdependence, such as family, school, and teams, success depends on others’ efficacy beliefs as well as on collective efficacy, namely, the practices of acting together efficaciously and the beliefs that sustain these practices.