AI Insight
Researchers developed and validated the College Students' Social Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (CSSEQ), a 24-item instrument specifically designed to measure social self-efficacy among Chinese college students. The questionnaire identifies three distinct factors: Social Interaction Competence Confidence, Emotional Regulation Confidence, and Interpersonal Awareness Confidence. The study used a rigorous three-phase mixed-methods approach with over 1,800 participants total, demonstrating excellent psychometric properties including strong reliability, validity, and measurement invariance across demographic groups.
Why it matters
This culturally adapted instrument fills a significant gap in assessing social self-efficacy in collectivistic cultures, where existing Western measures may miss culturally specific elements like relational harmony and emotional restraint. It provides researchers and mental health professionals with a validated tool for cross-cultural research, mental health screening, and designing targeted interventions for college students in Chinese and similar cultural contexts.
BackgroundSocial self-efficacy (SSE) is a key cognitive-motivational construct predicting social adjustment and mental health. However, existing SSE scales were developed in Western individualistic cultures, neglecting collectivistic characteristics (e.g., relational harmony, emotional restraint) and online social contexts. This study developed and validated a culturally adapted multidimensional College Students ‘Social Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (CSSEQ) for Chinese students.MethodsA mixed-method, multi-phase design was used. Phase 1 involved semi-structured interviews (n = 13) and open-ended surveys (n = 266) to explore the indigenous structure. Phase 2 included item generation, expert review, content validity, item analysis, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA; n = 572). Phase 3 performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; n = 1,011), reliability, validity, and common method bias tests.ResultsThe final 24-item CSSEQ exhibited a three-factor correlated model: Social Interaction Competence Confidence, Emotional Regulation Confidence, and Interpersonal Awareness Confidence. CFA showed excellent fit: χ2/df = 2.59, RMSEA = 0.04, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, SRMR = 0.03. A higher-order model also fit acceptably. Reliability was excellent (Cronbach’s α = 0.96, composite reliability = 0.95, test–retest = 0.96). Convergent validity (AVE > 0.50), discriminant validity (HTMT 0.78). Common method bias was not substantial (Harman’s single-factor: 28.6%). Measurement invariance across gender, grade, and major was supported (ΔCFI ≤ 0.01, ΔRMSEA ≤ 0.015).ConclusionThe CSSEQ is a psychometrically rigorous, culturally grounded, and structurally robust instrument for assessing social self-efficacy among Chinese college students. Compared to the Western Perceived Social Self-Efficacy Scale (PSSE), the CSSEQ demonstrated significant incremental validity (ΔR2 = 0.124) and a correlation of r = 0.88 (below the redundancy threshold of 0.90), indicating that it captures culturally specific components not covered by existing Western measures. It captures culturally specific components missing from Western scales and integrates modern social contexts, making it suitable for cross-cultural research, mental health screening, intervention design, and educational assessment.
Source: Development and validation of the College Students’ Social Self-Efficacy Questionnaire