Problem. Extant measures of students’ cybersecurity self-efficacy lack sufficient evidence of validity based on internal structure. Such evidence of validity is needed to enhance confidence in conclusions drawn from use of self-efficacy measures in the cybersecurity domain.

Research Question. To address this identified problem, we sought to answer our research question: What is the underlying factor structure of a new self-efficacy for Information Security measure?

Method. We leveraged exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine the number of factors underlying a new measure of student self-efficacy to conduct information security. This measure was created to align with the five elements of the information security section of the K-12 Cybersecurity Education framework. Participants were 190 undergraduate students recruited from computer science courses across the U.S.

Findings. Results from the EFA indicated that a four-factor solution best fit the data while maximizing interpretability of the factors. The internal reliability of the measure was quite strong (alpha = .99).

Implications. The final factor solution did not fully mirror the five elements of the information security section of the K-12 Cybersecurity Education framework. Regardless, the psychometric quality of this measure was demonstrated, and thus evidence of validity based on internal structure has been established. Future work will conduct a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and assess measurement invariance across subgroups of interest (e.g., over- vs. under-represented race/ethnicity groups, gender)

Link to Presentation: https://youtu.be/3F8r5lgSIaA