Measuring fashion design self-efficacy: Scale development and validation in undergraduate education

Abstract

Self-efficacy is a critical factor in explaining achievement and performance in many areas. Though few studies have examined self-efficacy in fashion design, most relied on general self-efficacy indicators or overly specific apparel construction skills. Thus, this study aimed to develop and validate a domain-specific self-report scale to measure fashion design self-efficacy among undergraduate textile and fashion design students. The scale was developed using a systematic, multi-stage procedure that included item generation, expert review, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We developed an item pool and we refined it using EFA with 190 undergraduate students. Parallel analysis supported a four-factor structure. The four self-efficacy dimensions were design and creativity, functional and ethical design, management and innovation, and technical and technological. The CFA with a new sample of 150 fashion design students confirmed the four-factor structure, yielding acceptable model fit indices: CFI = .91, TLI = .90, RMSEA = .06, and SRMR = .06. The final 25-item scale demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency, and evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. After conducting reliability and validity checks, we used data from 379 undergraduate students to identify areas open to development in the textile and fashion design curriculum. Additional analyses indicated stable factor structure and reliability along with expected differences between known groups. These results are encouraging, as they suggest that the proposed scale could be a reliable and valid tool for evaluating students' perceived self-efficacy, informing curriculum development, and supporting evidence-based decision-making in undergraduate fashion and textile design education.

Keywords

• Self-efficacy
• Design education
• Fashion design
• Textile design
• Scale development

Supporting Institution

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)

Project Number

This study was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) with grant number 125K242).

Ethical Statement

Eskisehir Technical University (December 19, 2024, 58233).

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