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The association of self-efficacy with well-being and ill-being: The possible mediator of coping and moderator of gender

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Abstract

Self-efficacy and coping strategies have been demonstrated to predict well-being and ill-being, respectively. However, the relationships among self-efficacy, coping, and well-being/ill-being have been less clear. This study aimed to examine whether college freshman’s self-efficacy could predict their well-being/ill-being through positive coping and negative coping. Self-report questionnaires were administered to 446 college freshmen in China. Results indicated that positive coping mediated the associations of self-efficacy with well-being and ill-being, even after age and the five personality traits were controlled for. However, the mediation effect of negative coping was non-significant. Multi-group analyses indicated that the mediation model did not differ between males and females. These findings suggest that cultivating college freshman’s individual resources of coping such as self-efficacy could enhance their well-being. We discussed the implications of these results for promoting well-being and preventing ill-being among college freshmen.

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Data is available from the first author upon request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Youth talents project of publicity, ideology and culture in 2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Zhengzhou University, 450001, Zhengzhou, China

    Ruiping Zhang, Linlin Gao, Lan Cheng & Zhanglong Lu

  2. College of Marxism , Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China

    Shuai Yang

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  1. Ruiping Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhanglong Lu or Shuai Yang.

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Appendix A

Appendix A

We tested the mediating effects of self-efficacy on the associations of coping strategies (i.e., positive coping and negative coping) with well-being and ill-being. Age and the five dimensions of personality traits were controlled for.

The posited model indicated a good fit to the data (χ2(41) = 96.06, CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.055, SRMR = 0.035). As seen in Fig. 3, positive coping was significantly corelated with self-efficacy (β = 0.35, p < 0.01), well-being (β = 0.01, p < 0.05) and ill-being (β = -0.11, p < 0.01). Negative coping was significantly corelated with self-efficacy (β = -0.12, p < 0.01) but not with well-being (β = 0.04, p = 0.31) and ill-being (β = 0.04, p = 0.21). Self-efficacy had non-significantly correlation with well-being (β = 0.07, p = 0.09) and ill-being (β = 0.06, p = 0.10). Therefore, the mediation model of self-efficacy was invalid.

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Zhang, R., Gao, L., Cheng, L. et al. The association of self-efficacy with well-being and ill-being: The possible mediator of coping and moderator of gender. Curr Psychol 42, 27998–28006 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03791-8

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