Background: Self-efficacy (SE) is a person’s belief in his or her own capability to perform
and accomplish a task that could produce a favourable outcome, despite facing obstacles. This
study aimed to confirm the validity and reliability of an SE scale among undergraduate students at
the Health Campus of the Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the undergraduate students
using a self-administered questionnaire. After using a purposive sampling method, 562 students
completed the questionnaire. Mplus 8 was employed to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis
on the psychometric properties of Bandura’s 18-item SE scale with three factors (internal feeling,
competing demands and situational). Then, the composite reliability was calculated for each factor.
Results: Most of the students were Malay (73.3%) females (79.0%) who exercised 2.62
times a week for an average of 43.37 min per session. The final measurement model was obtained
after removing six problematic items, and the model was deemed fit based on several indices [Root
Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.067, Standardised Root Mean Square Residual
(SRMR) = 0.004, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.924]. The composite reliability values of the
three factors were acceptable (0.65 to 0.84).
Conclusion: The simplified 12-item SE scale with three factors displayed good fit indices
with regard to the data, and they were considered to be acceptable for the current sampl