PEER REVIEW 10 September/October 2011, Vol. 83/No. 1 RADIOLOGIC TECHNOLOGY ........................ ........................................................................... Purpose Student radiographers must possess certain abilities to progress in their training; these can be assessed in various ways. Bandura’s social cognitive theory identifies self-efficacy as a key psychological construct with regard to how people adapt to environments where new skills are developed. Use of this construct is common in health care literature but little has been noted within radiographic lit- erature. The authors sought to develop a self-efficacy scale for student radiographers. Method The scale was developed following a standard format. An initial pool of 80 items was generated and psychometric analysis was used to reduce this to 68 items. Radiography students drawn from 7 universities were participants (N=198) in validating the scale. Results The psychometric properties of the scale were examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA), factor analysis and item analysis. ANOVA demonstrated an acceptable level of known group validity: first-year, second-year, and third-year students all scored significantly differently ( P=.035) from one another. Factor analysis identified the most significant factor as confidence in image appraisal. The scale was refined using item and factor analysis to produce the final 25-item scale. Conclusion This is the first published domain-specific self-efficacy scale validated specifically for student radiographers. In its current format it may have pedagogical utility. The authors currently are extending the work to add to the scale’s validity and embedding it into student training to assess its predictive value. JONATHAN KITCHING, MSc SIMON CASSIDY, PhD PETER EACHUS, PhD PETER HOGG, MPhil, DCR Creating and Validating Self-Efficacy Scales for Students the skills or competencies deemed essential for newly qualified radiographers in the UK. Consequently, fresh approaches of establishing whether students pos- sess the necessary attributes should be considered. The UK National Health Service is publicly funded and subject to budgetary pressures, so any such new approaches would be subject to a cost-benefit analysis. Bandura’s self-efficacy construct 3 is well established within the field of psychology and social cognitive theory and has been widely used within health care 4 and educa- tion. 5-7 In the literature, use of the construct has empha- sized how people learn new skills and overcome problems. Literature Review Self-efficacy is a concept grounded in social learn- ing theory — humans have basic primary drives (eg, hunger and thirst) out of which result secondary drives. Secondary drives evolve as behaviors are rewarded or reinforced. 8 Bandura stated that each individual pos- sesses a self-system that enables him or her to exercise T he United Kingdom has a largely publicly funded health care system, which has undergone a period of unprecedented expansion and change in the past 10 years. This is evidenced by the increased number of patients treated and the extended scope of health care worker practice. 1 To support these chang- es, it was necessary to increase staff recruitment and, therefore, increase the number of student radiogra- phers. Clinical training is an essential component of the radiographer educational process because approx- imately 50% of the UK undergraduate course is con- ducted within the hospital environment. Student radiographers are expected to pass various assess- ments to evaluate this clinical learning. These assess- ments are performed by radiographers who work with the students in the clinical setting. Despite such assessments, it still is possible for radiographers to complete the undergraduate course with certain abili- ties underdeveloped. 2 There is no definitive guide to