Students’ self-efficacy for higher education: Intersectionality of gender, place of residence, cultural and economic capital

Achieving gender equality in self-efficacy for higher education (HE) is essential for meeting Europe’s strategic goals of increasing access to HE and narrowing gender disparities. Our study examines gender disparities in self-efficacy for pursuing HE, including intersecting influences of gender, cultural capital, economic capital and residential location. Building on Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy and its application in research, we define self-efficacy for HE as a student’s confidence in their ability to successfully carry out the necessary tasks for enrollment and completion of their desired study program and as a concept that reflects complex intersectional inequalities influenced by both individual and social factors across various societal contexts. We employed a quantitative intersectional approach grounded in McCall’s multicategorical complexity framework. The study was conducted with a nationally representative sample of Croatian upper secondary school students in 2021. The findings revealed that urban residence, along with higher cultural and economic capital, significantly influenced self-efficacy for HE. Boys demonstrated slightly higher self-efficacy than girls. Cultural capital exerted a slightly stronger impact among male students and among students from rural areas. The study is discussed in the context of its contribution to quantitative intersectional research and policies aimed at addressing gender inequalities in HE in Europe.