Does Self-Efficacy Enhance Self-Regulated Learning or the Other Way Around?

This exploratory study aimed to explore the possibility that self-regulated learning (SRL) boosts one’s self-efficacy (SE), rather than the opposite, which a number of literatures in individualist societies have highlighted, i.e. that SE enhances SRL. This study investigated this direction of relationship (SRL enhances SE) in a sample of first-year undergraduates from a collectivist society, Saudi Arabia, and this may have had a bearing upon the findings. To achieve this aim, the study developed a multidimensional model including SRL, SE, and motivation. This mixed-methods research included two sequential phases, a qualitative investigation, then, a quantitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on university teachers, first-year undergraduates, and the students’ family members. The themes emerging from the analyses of the qualitative data informed the development of the questionnaire, which was administrated on a random, survey, sample of 2174 first-year undergraduates. The conceptual model was investigated by testing the measurement model (using confirmatory factor analysis), and then, the structural model (using structural equation modelling). The model fit the data well and all the relationships were positive and significant. It was found that motivation is associated with both SRL and SE. However, the strongest relationship was that SRL enhances SE significantly. Additionally, motivation had a stronger association with SE when SRL was a mediator . The literature on SRL and SE has been mainly developed and investigated in individualist societies. Therefore, when this study explored the possible links between the two among undergraduates from a different society and culture, it was found that SRL might enhance one’s SE.