| The purpose of this study was to assess the construct validity of an emotional self-efficacy construct measured by the Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) using a cross-validation study. The second purpose was to assess the extent to which emotional self-efficacy with other psychosocial variables (number of credit hours earned, gender, and age) predict personal growth initiative among graduate students preparing to be professional counselors and psychologists. The total sample of participants consisted of 361 master's and doctoral students of counseling and clinical psychology from CACREP and APA accredited programs across the U.S. The majority of participants were females (81.20%). The majority of all participants were in the range from 22 to 32 years of age (78.7%). This study used exploratory factor analysis and multivariate correlational methods. Data were collected via SurveyMonkey questionnaires. Construct validity was revealed using factor analyses producing three viable models, four-, three-and one-factor models. Internal consistency for the three models was > .90. The results of a standard multiple regression showed that emotional self-efficacy significantly predicted personal growth initiative. Also, women students scored significantly higher on the PGIS-II than men participants, and older participants also significantly predicted PGI. Findings of this study showed that higher emotional self-efficacy, fewer credit hours earned, being female, and higher age significantly predicted higher personal growth initiative. Replications with other samples of graduate students are recommended to validate the findings. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. |
