2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Impact of Achievement Goals and Resilience on Self-Efficacy for Learning Performance Among Undergraduate Students
Self-efficacy for learning refers to an individual’s belief in their ability to successfully complete a specific task and achieve desired outcomes. Research suggests that students with high self-efficacy tend to be more committed and persistent, even when facing challenges. Such students often attribute their success to the effort they put into their studies, rather than external factors like luck. In contrast, students with low self-efficacy are more likely to attribute their failures to a lack of ability. Students' academic success often depends on their self-efficacy beliefs in their ability to perform well. Various studies have linked self-belief with the type of achievement goals that students bring to learning. We argue that academic resilience can impact the relationship between achievement goals and students' self-efficacy for learning beliefs. However, the relationship is clearly understood in the literature. Hence, we conducted a study that addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the interrelationships between achievement goals, resilience, and self-efficacy.
We hypothesized that achievement goals and resilience would significantly predict self-efficacy, with mastery goals demonstrating a stronger correlation. Furthermore, we also posited that resilience moderates the relationship between achievement goals and self-efficacy, enhancing the impact of adaptive achievement goals on students' self-efficacy beliefs.
Participants were 151 engineering undergraduate students, who completed instruments designed to measure their self-efficacy, achievement goals, and resilience. Achievement goals were assessed using the Achievement Goals Questionnaire (AGQ), Resilience was measured using the Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and self-efficacy for learning performance was measured using a subscale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Items on the scale measured on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
To address our research question, we conducted a multiple regression analysis using achievement goals (AGQ) and resilience as predictor variables, with self-efficacy for learning performance as the outcome variable. The results indicated that mastery goals had a significant positive association with self-efficacy (β = .230, p < .01), while performance goals showed a marginally significant positive relationship (β = .150, p = .051). Furthermore, resilience was strongly and positively associated with self-efficacy (β = .388, p < .001) indicating that higher resilience levels contribute to stronger beliefs in one’s ability to learn and succeed.
These findings highlight the importance of fostering both achievement goals, particularly mastery goals and resilience within educational contexts. Enhancing these attributes may strengthen students' self-efficacy, leading to improved academic performance. Educational interventions that focus on building resilience and promoting mastery-oriented goals can offer effective pathways to bolster students' confidence in their learning abilities, thereby improving their overall academic outcomes.