Cadernos de Saúde Pública (Nov 2014)

Self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between subjective well-being and general health of military cadets

  • Luciane Albuquerque Sá de Souza,
  • Ana Raquel Rosas Torres,
  • Genário Alves Barbosa,
  • Tiago Jessé Souza de Lima,
  • Luana Elayne Cunha de Souza

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00177513
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 30, no. 11
pp. 2309 – 2319

Abstract

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The objective of this study is to investigate the role of self-efficacy beliefs as a mediator of the relationship between the subjective well-being and general health of military cadets (police and firefighters). For this study, 228 cadets participated, the majority being Military Police officer candidates (65%), male (79%), between 17 and 34 years of age (99%), and unmarried (74%). They responded to questionnaires on general health (GHQ-12), perceived general self-efficacy, to the multiple scales that cover subjective well-being, and demographic questions. Initial regression analyses indicate the predictive power of subject well-being regarding general health. Subsequently, the mediation analyses provide satisfactory evidence for the role of perceived self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between the subjective well-being variables and the overall health of military cadets. The implications of these results for the professional training of the cadets are discussed.

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