The differential predictive utility of two caregiver-targeted self-efficacy measures to promote oral health of underserved children.

Objective: Oral health self-efficacy is a modifiable determinant of early childhood caries, which is one of the most prevalent childhood diseases. Yet, two common measures of self-efficacy (i.e., context-specific and behavior-specific) lack validation and clarity in the prediction of children's oral health behaviors. This study examined the psychometric properties of two caregiver oral health self-efficacy measures and investigated the predictive ability and age-varying effects of caregiver oral health self-efficacy on child oral health behaviors.

Method: In this secondary data analysis of caregiver-child dyads ( = 754, = 2.4, 56.2% Black or African American, 68.3% below poverty level), caregivers reported their oral health self-efficacy and their child's tooth brushing frequency, diet, and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption at baseline and 4, 12, and 24 months. Psychometrics were examined with confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and the predictive ability and age-varying effects of caregiver self-efficacy on child oral health behaviors were examined with time-varying effect models (TVEMs).

Results: The context- and behavior-specific oral health self-efficacy CFA models indicated mixed model fit. In the predictive TVEM models, greater behavior-specific, but not context-, oral health self-efficacy predicted greater child tooth brushing across all ages. Greater context-specific oral health self-efficacy predicted healthier child diet throughout childhood, but greater behavior-specific self-efficacy only predicted healthier child diet in older children. Greater behavior-specific self-efficacy predicted lower SSB consumption throughout childhood while greater context-specific self-efficacy only predicted lower SSB consumption in younger children.

Conclusions: Both caregiver oral health self-efficacy measures were psychometrically comparable and differentially predicted oral health behaviors across varying childhood ages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).