Self-Efficacy's Impact on African American Youth's Academic Performance: A Gendered Experience

This study examined the mediating role of academic self-efficacy between parents’ and teachers’ academic expectations and students’ academic performance. Data were obtained from 424 African American 10th graders as part of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). Students, parents, math teachers and English teachers were surveyed. Students completed measures of math and English academic self-efficacy. Parents and teachers completed a measure of their academic expectations for each student. High school GPAs obtained from student records were used to represent students’ academic performance. Preliminary analyses revealed that the effect of parents’ academic expectations disappeared when teachers’ academic expectations were included. Four mediation models were constructed separately, one for each gender (i.e. male, female) and academic subject (i.e. math, English) combination, controlling for parents’ academic expectations. Mediation results were significant in only one model. For African American males, math academic self-efficacy partially explained the relationship between math teachers’ academic expectations and students’ academic performance. Implications for teaching are discussed.