Overview

Measures mothers’ perceived beliefs regarding their performance of specific caregiving tasks, designed to be highly situation- or domain specific.

Scoring and Interpretation

Scored with a 4-point response scale (1 = much worse, 2 = somewhat worse, 3 = as good, 4 = better than others). Item scores are summed to yield a  total score. Higher total score indicates greater ability for the mother to interact with her child compared to other mothers in general, conveying higher self-efficacy.

Total self-efficacy scores can be categorized into four levels: very good (30–40), good (20–30), poor (10–20) and very poor (<10).

Alternatively, high and low categories of maternal self-efficacy can be defined as above and below the median of the 10 summed items, respectively.

Citation

Teti, Douglas M., and Donna M. Gelfand. 1991. "Behavioral Competence Among Mothers of Infants in the First Year: The Mediational Role of Maternal Self‐Efficacy." Child Development, 62(5): 918-929.

Context and Applications to Child Nutrition

Brazil 
Surkan, Pamela J., Ichiro Kawachi, Louise M. Ryan, Lisa F. Berkman, Lina M. Carvalho Vieira, and Karen E. Peterson. 2008. "Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Parenting Self-Efficacy, and Child Growth." American Journal of Public Health. 98(1): 125-132.

Iran
Salarkia, Nahid, Nasrin Omidvar, Farid Zaeri, Hassan Eeini Zeinab, and Tirang R. Neyestani. 2016. "Mother’s Self-Efficacy Mediates the Relationship Between Household Food Insecurity and Maternal Infant Feeding Styles." Maternal and Child Health. 20): 602-612.

Adaptations

N/A

Formative research

Salarkia pretested the scale and did not make any major changes.