Published In

Society and Mental Health

Document Type

Post-Print

Publication Date

2018

Subjects

Socioeconomic Factors--United States, Childhood development -- Environmental aspects

Abstract

An internal locus of control may be particularly valuable for youth with low socioeconomic status (SES), yet the mechanisms that externalize their control remain unclear. This study uses data on 16,450 US 8th graders surveyed for the National Education Longitudinal Study in 1988 and 1990. Results indicate family income is more closely associated with adolescents’ locus of control than parents’ occupations and educational attainment, and that race does not independently affect adolescents’ locus of control net of these other components of SES. Findings also indicate higher SES adolescents feel more internal locus of control in largest part because their parents discuss school more often with them, their homes have more books and other cognitive resources, they receive higher grades in middle school science and social studies, they are more likely to attend a private rather than public school, their friends are more academically oriented, and they feel more safe at school.

Description

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Society and Mental Health. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Society and Mental Health and can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869318754321

DOI

10.1177/2156869318754321

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26211

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