Investigating the Relationship between Problem Solving Skills and Self-Efficacy and Social Adjustment of Female Students in Kermanshah

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of problem solving skills in self-efficacy and social adjustment of female high school students.

The present study was applied research in terms of purpose, quantitative in terms of data type, and descriptive-correlational in terms of survey method. The statistical population of the present study included all female high school students in Kermanshah in the academic year 1401-1400 in the number of 4100 people. Based on Krejcie and Morgan table, a sample of 350 people was selected by one-stage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using three problem-solving skills questionnaires by Hepner and Peterson (1982) 35 items, Scherer self-efficacy questionnaire (1982) 17 items, and Sinha and Singh (1993) 20-item social adjustment questionnaire. The face validity of the questionnaires was verified by experimental implementation among 30 students and the content validity of the questionnaires was evaluated and confirmed by expert judgment and comprehensive literature review. Self-efficacy was 0.82 and social adjustment was 0.87. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K_S) was used to analyze the data to determine the normality of data distribution, Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the correlation coefficient, and regression analysis to determine the coefficient of explanation using SPSS statistical software.

The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between problem solving skills with self-efficacy and social adjustment at the alpha level of 0.01 (p <0.01).

Based on this, it is concluded that students who have higher problem solving skills have more self-efficacy and social adjustment.