Correlation between Students’ Self-Efficacy and Teachers’ Educational Leadership Style in Iranian Midwifery Students

BACKGROUND: Self-efficacy is believe in and feeling of ability to complete work. One of these factors is educational teachers ' role. This study aimed to determine relationship between teachers’ leadership style and students’ self-efficacy in midwifery students.

METHOD: This Study is a cross sectional correlation study. Sampling was conducted in midwifery students in Bachelor Science degree in 2013. Data collection tools were multi leadership questionnaire and self-efficacy clinical performance. After explaining the goals of study, 97 students completed the questionnaire. Scoring the questionnaire was based on a Liker’s scale (0-5).Data were analyzed by SPSS 16. Correlation coefficient test was adopted to investigate the relationship and p value was considered 0.05.

RESULT: Mean of self-efficacy scores were 116.12 (24.66.). In 53.3% of the cases, self-efficacy was good, in 42.2% moderate and in 4.3%, it was bad. The majority of the students (88.9%) reported that their teachers had an idealized style in leadership. About 94.6% of the students with good self- efficacy believed that their teachers’ leadership style was transformational style. There was a significant correlation between self- efficacy and leadership style (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that transformational style is appropriate for midwifery teachers.