Childhood intelligence, self-esteem, early trait neuroticism and behaviour adjustment as predictors of locus of control in teenagers

Correlates of Adult Vocabulary Task Performance: Findings from a British Cohort

This study explored a longitudinal data set of 4361 adults (2119 males and 2239 females) to examine factors that influence adult vocabulary task performance. Data were collected at birth, in childhood (age 10 years), during teenage years (age 16 years), and in adulthood (ages 30, 34, and 42 years) to examine the effects of family social status, childhood cognitive ability, teenager locus of control, psychological distress, educational qualifications, and occupational prestige in adulthood on an adult vocabulary task-an index of crystallized intelligence. Structural equation modeling showed that childhood cognitive ability, teenager locus of control, education, and occupation were all significant and direct predictors of adult vocabulary task performance. Parental social status affected the outcome variable mediated through educational qualifications. The strongest predictor of adult vocabulary task performance was childhood cognitive ability, followed by educational qualifications and locus of control. Finally, limitations were acknowledged.

Stability of, and Associations Between, Parent and Child Locus of Control Expectancies

The purpose of the present study was to assess the stability of locus of control (LOC) scores over time using data gathered from tests constructed to be consistent with Rotter's definition of LOC. We compared LOC scores of parents (measured prior to the birth of the index child and at 6 and 18 years later) and their offspring (at ages 8 and 16) to explore how stable adult and child LOC was over time and to see how parental LOC was associated with the LOC of the child aged 8 and again at 16. Locus of control was measured using modified versions of adult (ANSIE, Nowicki and Duke, 1974) and child (CNSIE, Nowicki and Strickland, 1973) LOC scales, administered to participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in the United Kingdom. We predicted that: (1) adult scores would be more stable than children's and (2) parents' and children's LOC scores would be related to one another. Analyses of the data found that individual's LOC scores were significantly associated over time, with adult scores (r ∼ 0.50) more highly correlated than children's (r ∼ 0.20). Correlations suggest more stability for adults than children, but also indicate the occurrence of substantial change across time. Although statistically significant, correlations between family members were small at both childhood and adolescent time points. Additional analyses suggested that mother and father LOC scores were more highly correlated with opposite rather than with same sex children, but again though significant the coefficients were small. We also analyzed the binary outcomes of externality to assess parental contributions to externality in the 8 and 16-year-old children and found correlations were significant, but small. Possible explanations are offered for why the associations between parent and child LOC were not higher. We concluded that researchers need to focus more on clarifying how children's LOC is acquired.