Assessing the relational competence as the core dimension of social worker's perceived self-efficacy through the Rasch model

Perceived self-efficacy is concerned with peoples belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations, and can play a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges. There is no all-purpose measure of perceived self-efficacy so it is mecessary to derive specific scales for specific contexts. This paper presents the structure of a self-efficacy scale developed for social workers. Using the Rating Scale Model as a measurement model, an objective measurement of the social workers perceived self-efficacy is produced and analyzed. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis was performed in order to determine whether the test questions were fair with respect to some population characteristics.