The Relationship between Academic Self-Efficacy and Psychological Well-Being, Family Cohesion, and Spiritual Health Among Students of Kharazmi University

Introduction: Academic self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his abilities to achieve educational goals and activities, which its formation is affected by many factors. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological wellbeing, family cohesion, and spiritual health among students of Kharazmi University. Methods: In this descriptive correlation study during 2013-2014 academic years, 343 students studying at Kharazmi University were selected through cluster sampling. The data was collected through, Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Questionnaires, Fischer’s Family Organized Cohesiveness Scale, Palutzian and Ellison’s Spiritual Health Questionnaires and Owen and Froman`s Academic Self-efficacy Questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics tests, Pearson correlation coefficient test, multiple linear regression and path analysis. Results: The Pearson correlation coefficient test showed a significant positive relationship between academic self-efficacy and psychological wellbeing (r=0.371), family cohesion (r=0.351) and spiritual health (r=0.468) (P<0.01). The results of linear regression analysis indicated that the variables like psychological wellbeing family cohesion and spiritual health were able to express 0.28 percent of academic self-efficacy variance among the students. Moreover, the results of path analysis showed that the predictor variables affected academic self-efficacy both directly and indirectly. Conclusion: The findings of the study support that as predictor variables psychological wellbeing, family cohesion, and spiritual health are able to predict academic self-efficacy among students. So it seems necessary to provide training courses for developing self-efficacy and academic self-efficacy beliefs with regard to individual differences in terms of psychological wellbeing, family cohesion, and spiritual health.