Religious value orientation and self-efficacy among secondary school students in cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out if religious value orientation has any influence on self- efficacy with regards to social self efficacy, academic self efficacy, language self efficacy and moral self efficacy. Ex -post facto design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of 1,543 students randomly selected from 47 public schools in Cross River State. A self designed questionnaire titled Religious Value Orientation and Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (RVOASEQ) was used to collect data for the study. The face validity of the instrument was determined by four research experts in Educational Psychology and measurement and evaluation, while the reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability method. The data collected from 1,529 subjects were analysed using One Way Analysis of Variance statistical tool, tested at . 05 level of significance. The result of the analyses revealed that religious value orientation significantly influence all the dimensions of students’ self-efficacy except social self-efficacy. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that teachers should encourage students to belong to social groups in school, to enable them develop skills that will help them build their social competence and also engage students in religious discussions and activities that will help them build up a positive religious standing that will guide their activities.