The relationship between parental self-efficacy, health-related quality of life, stress and educational level on adolescents' self-efficacy: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Self-efficacy is a well-known concept often referred to as the belief in the ability to perform in different situations. The concept of self-efficacy is particularly relevant during adolescence, as it serves as a self-regulatory mechanism through which adolescents can be motivated to change their behavior by significant others, such as parents. However, there is little research evidence on how parental factors are associated with adolescents' self-efficacy. Hence, this current paper aimed to describe parental self-efficacy, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), stress, and educational level and explore associations between the participating parent's self-efficacy, HRQOL, stress, and educational level on adolescents' self-efficacy stratified by gender. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed among 508 Norwegian adolescent-parent dyads. Adolescents were 13-15 years old and completed an electronic survey during school hours with teacher and researcher present, whereas the participating parent completed the survey at home. The Survey comprised of a test battery of questionnaires, including sociodemographic data, self-efficacy for both adolescents and parents, and the parental factors: stress, HRQOL, and educational level. Separate multivariable regressions were conducted for the participating parent using STATA software. RESULTS: Descriptive analyses revealed a self-efficacy score of (mean/standard deviation (SD), 32.9 (4.0) vs. 34.1 (4.3)), HRQOL (mean/SD, PCS 51.1 (9.5) vs. 53.3 (7.0), MCS 51.9 (8.2) vs. 54.1 (7.2)) and stress (mean/SD, 0.28 (0.24) vs. 0.25 (0.15) among mothers and fathers respectively. Half of the mothers (506%) and 46.1% of the fathers reported ≥ 16 years of education. Multivariable regressions revealed all nonsignificant associations of all parental study variables on adolescents' self-efficacy (all p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the parental factors examined were not associated with adolescents' self-efficacy. These findings highlight the need for further observational and longitudinal studies with larger samples to better understand how parental factors influence adolescents' self-efficacy.