Comparison of General and Task-Specific Measures of Self-Efficacy in Adult Hearing Aid Users

Self-efficacy is defined as “the belief in one’s capability to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations” and plays a major role in goal-setting (Bandura, 1997; 2004). Self-efficacy can be broken down into two types: (1) perceived general self-efficacy and (2) task-specific self-efficacy. General self-efficacy is an individual’s perception of his or her ability to perform across a variety of situations. Task-specific self-efficacy examines an individual’s perception of his or her ability to perform the actions specific to a situation. Self-efficacy is an important component of successful self-management of chronic illness, and has been shown to be important to better health outcomes. Within the field of audiologic rehabilitation, it is empirically unknown whether general or task-specific levels of self-efficacy are related, or if they are good predictors of hearing aid outcomes. Forty individuals were administered a measure of general self-efficacy and hearing aid self-efficacy. These were compared to an objective test of basic hearing aid skills. Overall general and hearing aid self-efficacy were high for all participants. Participants had the lowest perceived self-efficacy for advanced hearing aid skills. Statistical analyses indicated general and task-specific measures of self-efficacy were moderately correlated, and general self-efficacy was a good predictor of self-efficacy for overall hearing aid use and aided listening with hearing aids. Results indicated self-reported vision and pure tone-average were good predictors of hearing aid self-efficacy. Neither general nor task-specific self-efficacy measures were good predictors of the objective test of basic hearing aid skills. There was a large discrepancy between self-efficacy to manage hearing aids and actual ability to perform these skills, indicating that this group of individuals overestimated confidence in ability to manage hearing aids. Results support a relationship between general and task-specific self-efficacy. However, self-efficacy measures do not predict hearing aid outcomes as measured in this study. Self-efficacy measures should be further investigated to determine whether they are useful predictors of additional outcome measures in more diverse populations.