Skip to main content
Log in

The influence of self-efficacy on human error in airline pilots: The mediating effect of work engagement and the moderating effect of flight experience

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bandura’s self-efficacy theory has been extensively studied in the fields of education, sports, military science, commerce and so forth. The primary aim of this study is to explore the relationship between self-efficacy, work engagement, flight experience, and human error among pilots during in-flight missions. The Perceived Professional Self-Efficacy Scale (PPSEC), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), and the Safety Operation Behavior Scale (SOBS) were used to evaluate one hundred and forty-three airline pilots’ self-efficacy, work engagement, and human error. Correlation analysis indicated that self-efficacy, work engagement, and human error were significantly correlated with each other. A causal steps regression and bootstrap analysis showed that airline pilots’ self-efficacy significantly influenced their human error in aviation. Meanwhile, work engagement also mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and human error. Multiple group regression analysis showed that flight experience moderated the association between pilots’ self-efficacy and human error. Implications for further research and instructions for how to improve aviation safety are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Funding

This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2016CBZ010).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xuqun You.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Author Li Yuan has received research grants from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2016CBZ010). The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study does not include any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, Y., Liu, Z., Lan, J. et al. The influence of self-efficacy on human error in airline pilots: The mediating effect of work engagement and the moderating effect of flight experience. Curr Psychol 40, 81–92 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9996-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9996-2

Keywords

Navigation