Artistic self-efficacy scale for middle school students: Development, validity, reliability, and measurement invariance evidence

Abstract

This study developed an artistic self-efficacy scale for students in Grades 5–8 and examined its psychometric properties in visual arts education. A quantitative scale-development and validation design was used. Separate groups of experts and middle school students participated in content review, pilot testing, exploratory analysis, confirmatory analysis, reliability assessment, and measurement-invariance testing. Items were generated from the literature and refined through expert review and student feedback. Exploratory analyses yielded a theoretically interpretable structure involving technical application and material use, aesthetic evaluation and interpretation, and innovative production and adaptive strategies, while also indicating a strong general artistic self-efficacy component. Confirmatory analyses showed that the correlated three-factor model represented the data better than a single-factor model, and a higher-order model also supported the interpretation of an overall score. Reliability evidence was acceptable to strong, particularly for the total score. However, the dimensions were closely related and should not be treated as fully independent. The findings provide preliminary support for using the scale, especially its total score, to assess middle school students’ artistic self-efficacy. Further studies should examine its validity across samples and external criteria.