Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.
Carlos De las Cuevas and Wenceslao Peñate
Universidad de La Laguna
Background: Self-efficacy has been used to explain and predict human characteristics in different domains, including health behavior. The aim of this paper is to study the internal consistency, components, and convergent validity of the Spanish version of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) in psychiatric outpatients. Methods: A convenience sample of 966 consecutive psychiatric out patients completed in 2014 the Spanish versions of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), Form C of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC-C), the Hong Psychological Reactance Scale (HPRS), the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10), and a questionnaire including socio-demographic and clinical variables. Results: The GSE scale attained high internal consistency. Principal component analysis produced a general one-component solution. This structure accounted for more than 50% of the common variance. Further analyses yielded significant results with health locus of control dimensions, attitudes toward psychiatric treatment, age, and affective psychological reactance, but not with other socio-demographic or clinical variables. Conclusions: The structure of the General Self-efficacy Scale is unidimensional, homogenous and positively related to the constructs examined. The scale is a reliable and valid measure of the perception of self-efficacy in psychiatric outpatient care.
Validación de la Escala General de Autoeficacia en pacientes con trastornos mentales. Antecedentes: la autoeficacia ha sido utilizada para explicar y predecir las conductas de salud. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar la consistencia interna, componentes y la validez convergente de la escala general de Autoeficacia (GSE) en pacientes psiquiátricos. Método: una muestra de conveniencia de 966 pacientes psiquiátricos ambulatorios consecutivos cumplimentó, a lo largo del año 2014, las versiones en español de la GSE, del Formulario C de la escala Multidimensional de Locus de Control de Salud, la escala de Reactancia Psicológica de Hong, el Inventario de Actitudes hacia la Medicación, y un cuestionario con variables socio-demográficas y clínicas. Resultados: la consistencia interna de la escala GSE fue alta. El análisis de componentes principales ofreció una solución de un único componente, explicando más del 50% de la varianza común. Se registraron relaciones significativas con el locus de control de salud, las actitudes hacia la medicación, la edad y la reactancia psicológica afectiva, pero no con otras variables socio-demográficas o clínicas estudiadas. Conclusiones: la estructura de la escala general de auto-eficacia es unidimensional, homogénea y se relaciona positivamente con los constructos examinados. La escala es una medida fiable y válida en la atención ambulatoria psiquiátrica.
SPANISH
ENGLISH
https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2015.56