psychometrics of the general self-efficacy tool among indian homemakers

Background: self-efficacy plays a crucial role in determining individuals’ overall well-being and empowerment, particularly among early-adulthood homemakers in india. despite its importance, research on the psychometric properties of the general self-efficacy scale (gses) in india is scarce. this study aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by examining the reliability and validity of the gses among early-adulthood homemakers in india.methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 full-time homemakers in chhattisgarh, india, selected through stratified random sampling. the participants were women aged 20-40 years, married for at least one year, with a minimum 12th-grade education in english medium. the sample size was determined using g*power software, version 3.1 analysis. we used a demographic characteristics checklist and the 10-item gses, assessing validity and reliability through exploratory factor analysis (efa), confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), and cronbach’s α. results: efa yielded a 4-factor model that accounted for 64.14% of the variance with factor loadings ranging from 0.57 to 0.84. cfa confirmed a four-factor model with a satisfactory model fit indices (cfi=0.895, tucker-lewis index [tli]=0.782, root mean square error of approximation [rmsea]=0.084 and standardized root mean square residual [srmr]=0.044). however, internal consistency (cronbach’s α between 0.466 and 0.678) of the three factors was low. therefore, despite the efa results, we recommend the original one-factor model for the gse scale (cfi=0.769, tli=0.745, rmsea=0.098 and srmr=0.064) in the indian population due to its higher internal consistency (cronbach’s α=0.74). conclusion: this study validates the original gses as a reliable tool for measuring self-efficacy among early-adulthood homemakers in india, enabling its application in research, interventions, and policy development to promote women’s empowerment and well-being.