Factor Invariance by Gender of the Self-efficacy Scale in Nutrition and Physical Health Among Mexican University Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29105/rce-fod.v21i1.181Keywords:
Self-efficacy, factorial structure, health promotion, healthy lifestyleAbstract
Self-efficacy plays a central role in the intention and execution of health-related behaviors, particularly in the adoption and maintenance of healthy habits. The objective of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Self-Efficacy Scale for Nutrition and Physical Health Care in Mexican university students, considering sex as a comparison variable. A total of 1,218 Mexican university students (615 women and 603 men), aged 18 to 26 years, participated in the study and completed the scale. Confirmatory factor analyses and factorial invariance analyses were performed using a multisampling approach. The results revealed a five-factor structure dietary care, physical exercise, tobacco avoidance, alcohol avoidance, and problem-solving with adequate levels of reliability (Ω and α ≥ .89) and validity (GFI = .903; CFI = .957; RMSEA = .038) in both sexes, confirming the equivalence of the factor model. These findings support the validity and reliability of the scale for use in Mexican university men and women, both in research contexts related to health promotion, and suggest the advisability of evaluating its invariance in other populations.
Downloads
References
1. Abalo, J., Lévy, J., Rial, A., & Varela, J. (2006). Invarianza factorial con muestras múltiples. En J. Lévy (Ed.), Modelización con estructuras de covarianzas en ciencias sociales (pp. 259–278). Netbiblo.
2. Arbuckle, J. L. (2012). IBM SPSS Amos 21 user’s guide. IBM Corp.
3. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Freeman.
4. Bandura, A. (2006). Guide for constructing self-efficacy scales. En F. Pajares & T. Urdan (Eds.), Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 307–337). Information Age Publishing.
5. Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development, 67(3), 1206–1222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1131888
6. Blanco, H. (2010). Autoeficacia percibida en conductas académicas y cuidado de la salud en alumnos de primer ingreso a la Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua [Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Granada].
7. Blanco, H., Ornelas, M., Tristán, J. L., Cocca, A., Mayorga-Vega, D., & López-Walle, J. (2013). Editor for creating and applying computerised surveys. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 106, 935–940. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.105 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.105
8. Blanco, J. R., Ornelas, M., Viciana, J., & Rodríguez-Villalobos, J. M. (2016). Composición factorial de una escala de autoeficacia en el cuidado de la alimentación y salud física en universitarios mexicanos. Nutrición Hospitalaria, 33(2), 379–385. https://doi.org/10.20960/nh.120 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20960/nh.120
9. Bray, S. R., Gyurcsik, N. C., Culos-Reed, S. N., Dawson, K. A., & Martin, K. A. (2001). An exploratory investigation of the relationship between proxy efficacy, self-efficacy and exercise attendance. Journal of Health Psychology, 6(4), 425–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/135910530100600405 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/135910530100600405
10. Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming (2nd ed.). Routledge.
11. Calderón, J. L., Laca, F., & Pando, M. (2017). La autoeficacia como mediador entre el estrés laboral y el bienestar. Psicología y Salud, 27(1), 71–78.
12. Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007SEM0902_5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5
13. Dębska-Janus, M., Rozpara, M., Muchacka-Cymerman, A., Dębski, P., & Tomik, R. (2025). Health behaviors in the context of optimism and self-efficacy—The role of gender differences. Behavioral Sciences, 15(5), 626. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15050626 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15050626
14. Egele, V. S., Klopp, E., & Stark, R. (2025). An empirical ranking of the importance of the sources of self-efficacy for physical activity. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2025.2567322 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2025.2567322
15. Escobedo, M. T., Hernández, J. A., Estebané, V., & Martínez, G. (2016). Modelos de ecuaciones estructurales: Características, fases, construcción, aplicación y resultados. Ciencia & trabajo, 18(55), 16-22. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-24492016000100004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-24492016000100004
16. Forsyth, A. D., & Carey, M. P. (1998). Measuring self-efficacy in the context of HIV risk reduction. Health Psychology, 17(6), 559–568. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.17.6.559 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.17.6.559
17. Gelabert, E., García-Esteve, L., Martín-Santos, R., Gutiérrez, F., Torres, A., & Subirà, S. (2011). Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale in women. Psicothema, 23(1), 133–139.
18. Grembowski, D., Patrick, D., Diehr, P., Durham, M., Beresford, S., & Kay, E. (1993). Self-efficacy and health behavior among older adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 34(2), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.2307/2137237 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2137237
19. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage.
20. Kline, R. B. (2016). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
21. Montero, I., & León, O. (2005). Sistema de clasificación del método en los informes de investigación en psicología. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 5(1), 115–127.
22. Nápoles, N., Blanco, H., & Jurado, P. J. (2022). La autoeficacia y su influencia en la insatisfacción de la imagen corporal: revisión sistemática. Psicología y Salud, 32(1), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.25009/pys.v32i1.2711 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25009/pys.v32i1.2711
23. Ornelas, M., Blanco, H., Rodríguez, J. M., & Flores, F. J. (2011). Análisis psicométrico de la escala de autoeficacia en conductas de cuidado de la salud física en universitarios de primer ingreso. Formación Universitaria, 4(6), 21–34. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-50062011000600004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-50062011000600004
24. Prestwich, A., Kellar, I., Parker, R., MacRae, S., Learmonth, M., Sykes, B., Taylor, N., & Castle, H. (2014). How can self-efficacy be increased? Meta-analysis of dietary interventions. Health Psychology Review, 8(3), 270–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2013.813729 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2013.813729
25. Revelle, W., & Zinbarg, R. E. (2009). Coefficients alpha, beta, omega, and the GLB. Psychometrika, 74(1), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9102-z DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9102-z
26. Schwarzer, R. (1992). Self-efficacy in the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors. En R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Thought control of action (pp. 217–243). Hemisphere Publishing Corporation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315800820-14
27. Secretaría de Salud. (2024). Reglamento de la Ley General de Salud en Materia de Investigación para la Salud. Diario Oficial de la Federación. https://salud.gob.mx/unidades/cdi/nom/compi/rlgsmis.html
28. Soto, P. D., & Villagrán, G. (2014). Autoeficacia en alimentación prescrita en mujeres embarazadas con diabetes. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 48(1), 13–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30849/rip/ijp.v48i1.241
29. Sheeran, P., Klein, W. M. P., & Rothman, A. J. (2017). Health behavior change: Moving from observation to intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 573–600. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044007 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044007
30. Triguero, M., & Triguero-Sánchez, R. (2024). Modelos de Ecuaciones Estructurales con AMOS. Manual práctico para el empleo de AMOS. Independently published.
31. Thompson, B. (2004). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: Understanding concepts and applications. American Psychological Association. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/10694-000
32. Villamarín, F. (1990). Papel de la autoeficacia en los trastornos de ansiedad y depresión. Análisis y Modificación de Conducta, 16(47), 55–79.
33. Zhao, M., Xin, Y., Ni, W., Liu, Q., Ding, Y., Zhang, S., et al. (2024). Self-efficacy and healthy lifestyle behaviors as mediators between COVID-19 care knowledge and health status. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 30980. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-82099-y DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-82099-y
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Luis Humberto Blanco Ornelas, Ana Citlalli Díaz-Leal, Perla Jannet Jurado-García, Susana Ivonne Aguirre Vasquez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
