Investigation of the psychological symptoms of the adolescents having different self-efficacy

The aim of this study is to examine whether the self-efficacy of adolescents differs according to demographic variables and the relationship between self-efficacy of adolescents and psychological symptoms. This study is based on descriptive and relational method.The study group of the research consists of 1250 participants, 706 primary school students from six different primary schools (grade 6, 7, 8) and 544 high school students from six different high schools (grade 9, 10, 11, 12) in Buca, Izmir. 52, 40 % of the participants are female students and 47, 60 % of them are male students. The data of this research were collected with Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) that was first developed by Muris (2001) and adapted into Turkish by the researcher, Short Symptom Inventory that was developed by Derogatis (1992) and adapted into Turkish by Şahin and Durak (1994) and of which validity and reliability study for adolescents was done by Batıgün and Uğurtaş and Personal Information Form which was developed by the researchers. While analyzing research data, Independent Samples t-test, One Way Variance Analysis (ANOVA) and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used for the parametric analyses and Kruskall Wallis Test and Mann Whitney U Analysis techniques were used for the nonparametric analyses.At the end of the study, statistically meaningful differences were determined according to the participants? gender, education institution, ages, class level, mothers? education levels, school success, fields, birth order, whether their fathers have a job or not, whether they have their own study room or not, whether they get help from counseling service or not at academic self-efficacy that is subscale of self-efficacy. In social self-efficacy, statistically meaningful differences were determined according to participants? gender, age, mothers? and fathers? education levels, school success, high school types, fields, birth orders, numbers of sibling, locations, whether their fathers have a job or not, and whether they have a study room or not. In emotional self-efficacy, some statistically meaningful differences were determined according to their education institution, age, class level, school success, whether they have study rooms or not, whether their parents are divorced or not, and whether they get help from counseling service or not. Finally, in general self-efficacy, some statistically meaningful differences were determined according to the adolescents? education institution, age, class level, parents? education levels, school success, birth orders, numbers of brothers or sisters, whether their fathers have a job or not, whether they have a study room or not, whether their parents are divorced or not, and whether they get help from counseling service or not. Besides, some meaningful relationships in a negative way were determined between the adolescents? academic, social, emotional, general self-efficacy and depression, anxiety, negative self perception, somatization and hostility.The findings are discussed with the previous studies? results found in the literature recomendations are given on the practice of this study and for future studies.