Path analysis was used to test the influence of writing self-efficacy, writing apprehension, and writing aptitude on the essay-writing performance of 181 ninth-grade students. A model that also included gender accounted for 53% of the variance in performance. As hypothesized, both aptitude and students' self-efficacy beliefs had strong direct effects on performance. Aptitude also had a strong direct effect on selfefficacy, which largely mediated the indirect effect of aptitude on performance. Selfefficacy had a strong direct effect on apprehension, which, in turn, had a modest effect on performance. Girls and boys did not differ in aptitude or performance, but girls reported lower writing self-efficacy. Native English-speaking Hispanic students had lower aptitude and performance scores, lower self-efficacy, and higher apprehension. Results support the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory.
According to social cognitive theory, people's judgments of their capabilities to accomplish specific tasks are influential arbiters in human agency (Bandura, 1986, in press). In part, this is because these judgments of selfeflcacy are hypothesized to mediate the effect of other influences, such as aptitude or previous achievement, on subsequent performance. In academic settings, for example, the confidence that students have in their own capability helps determine what they do with the knowledge and skills they actually possess. Consequently, other influences on academic performances are, at least in part, the result of what students actually believe they can accomplish.
Students develop this sense of confidence from varied sources, the most notable being the information they obtain from their previous achievements. These achievements are themselves strong predictors of subsequent performance. Nonetheless, because "people's perceptions of their efficacy touch, at least to some extent, most everything they do" (Bandura, 1984, p. 251), self-efficacy judgments are both strong predictors of academic performance and important motivational factors.
Judgments of personal efficacy affect what students do by influencing the choices they make, the effort they expend, the persistence and perseverance they exert when obstacles arise, and the thought patterns and emotional reactions they experience. A strong sense of confidence, for example, may serve a student well when writing an essay, not because it causes her to be a better writer, but because it engenders greater interest in and attention to writing, stronger effort, and greater perseverance and resiliency in the face of adversity. Because of her self-confidence, she is also likely to feel less