Abstract

This study utilized a cross-temporal meta-analysis to explore shifts in self-efficacy levels among Korean college students from 1999 to 2022. We expected that increases in authoritative parenting styles, narcissism levels among students, and individualism in Korea might have positively influenced the self-efficacy of college students over the years. Conversely, growing economic disparities, decreasing class mobility, and the increasing instability of job markets might have had negative effects on self-efficacy. To investigate this, we analyzed 293 self-efficacy studies involving Korean college students published between 1999 and 2022, encompassing a total of 88,904 participants. Our criteria included studies that used the three most prevalent self-efficacy scales in Korea, focused solely on Korean college students, were cross-sectional with a one-time self-efficacy measurement, and provided essential statistics for our analysis. The results indicated no significant change in the self-efficacy levels of Korean college students over the observed period from 1999 to 2022. Additionally, we examined correlations between self-efficacy and various social indicators from different time points (20, 15, 10, and 5 years prior, as well as the year of data collection). Findings revealed that both birth rate and consumer price fluctuation rate were consistently negatively correlated with self-efficacy, while gross national income was positively correlated. This study is the first to assess Korean college students’ self-efficacy levels using a cross-temporal meta-analysis, offering foundational knowledge for implementing such analytical methods for subsequent research and providing an indirect assessment of the generational gap theory. Finally, the limitations of the study and the direction for future research were discussed