Improving women’s self-efficacy—that is, their belief in their capabilities to act effectively towards a goal—is an important and urgent policy goal. This 10-item scale allows us to measure self-efficacy applied to general economic activities. Rather than treating it as a generalized personality trait or as a domain-specific construct, this tool is intended to be a measure that is applicable across economic activities and to capture livelihoods in general in low-income contexts. It is designed to capture both control over economic decisions and resources and the ability to engage in economic activities.
Other variables you may want to collect alongside this scale include engagement in income-generating activities, individual income, and MAGNET’s goal-setting capacity scale.
Link to: tool content and guidelines, CTO file, and statistical annex
Duration: This tool takes on average 2.78 minutes to be implemented.
Permitted use of the tool: all users are free to use the tool with citation: “MAGNET (2023). Generalized Livelihoods Self-efficacy Scale. http://magnet.ifpri.info/generalized-livelihoods-self-efficacy-scale/”
Tool sample
I will ask you to indicate the degree to which you agree with each of the following statements.
- I am able to work outside the home if I want to.
- I am free to pursue the types of income-generating activities that interest me.
- I am able to adjust my daily work schedule whenever I need to.
Response Options:
- completely disagree 2. mostly disagree 3. neither agree nor disagree 4. mostly agree 5. completely agree.
Measurement properties
- Geographies Tested: Kenya, Tanzania
- Populations included: Female, Male
- Age range: Adults
For details on these testing metrics, visit our scoring methodology page.
International Food Policy Research Institute