Date
8-2019
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Curriculum & Instruction (EdD)
Chair
Steven McDonald
Keywords
Military Dependent, Self-efficacy, Mathematics, Stress, Military Life
Disciplines
Curriculum and Instruction | Education
Recommended Citation
Harris, Jeffrey Thomas, "The Differences in Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scores Between Military Dependent Students and General Population Students" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2165.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2165
Abstract
The United States has now been engaged in war for fourteen years, the longest war in American history. A war like this has created an atmosphere of extended deployments for members of the military resulting in separation from their family. Deployments can affect many areas of family life, and the child’s academics is one such area. A student’s success often depends on his/her confidence, or “self-efficacy”, in academics. This can be affected by the inconsistencies of military life, such as constantly moving and transferring schools, which can shake that confidence causing him or her to struggle academically. The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematics self-efficacy of military dependent students and compare the results to the general student population. The Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES) was used to quantify the results and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was run to determine the areas of significance of the subscales and overall mathematics self-efficacy. The study was a quantitative, causal-comparative design comparing 200 students - 100 military dependent and 100 general population - comparing each population’s total mathematics self-efficacy, mathematical task self-efficacy, and math-related school subjects self-efficacy. The results are intended to determine whether, in this population, the military dependent students show a greater amount of self-efficacy than the general population. According to the results of the One-Way MANOVA, military dependent students did show a greater mathematics self-efficacy than general population students. Since the One-Way MANOVA showed a significant difference, one-way ANOVAS were run and the only significance found was that military dependent students were higher than the general population in math task self-efficacy.
