Three common locus of control (LOC) measures were administered to 176 gifted and 204 nongifted students in grades 3 through 8 to determine the relationship of giftedness, sex, age, and their interactions to these LOC measures, and to explore instrument reliability and factor structure. Primary findings were mixed, with no giftedness main effect…

Attempts to reevaluate the reliability characteristics of two scales used frequently in studies of children's locus of control; the Bialer scale and the Nowicki-Strickland scale. The study replicated and expanded upon earlier research by examining a wider range of grade levels and measures of children's locus of control expectancies. (Author/RH)

Examined the hypothesis that processes other than those related to concepts about ability produce helplessness in children younger than 10. Found that eight year olds did not experience helplessness in response to feedback about their failure in an achievement task but did experience helplessness when they failed to perform a physical task. (MM)

This study assessed common concerns of school-age children. Participating were 138 children in grades 1, 3, and 5. Concerns were spontaneously generated by children during Phase 1 of the study, and common stressors most frequently mentioned were ranked on a 10-item rank-order task during Phase 2. In Phase 3, children completed questionnaires…

To assess hyperactive children's perceptions of drug treatment, a Causal Attribution Questionnaire was developed and introduced as a series of brief stories about "make believe" children to 36 hyperactive males (6 to 13 years) and a comparison group of 35 males. Results showed that the older the child in terms of chronological age, the greater the…

The affective development of 499 children in grades 3 through 12 was assessed through the use of instruments measuring self-esteem, locus of control and achievement motivation. (CM)

This study was designed to: (1) investigate the relationships between internal-external (I-E) locus of control and academic achievement for boys and girls over a nine-month period and (2) to determine whether the moderate ability of I-E scores to predict academic achievement is due to the moderate reliabilities of the I-E measures. A total of 279…

Examined depressive symptoms and achievement attributions in 51 attention deficit-disordered (ADD) and 51 normal school children. Found that ADD children acknowledged having more depressive symptoms and displayed more external attributions both for positive and for negative achievement than did normal children. (Author)

Children from a Catholic elementary school were interviewed to determine what they saw as probable causes for success or failure in four situations: a school testing situation an art project, playing football, and catching frogs. Causal explanations were found to differ across the four situations. (Author/GDC)

Children in grades 1, 3, and 6 were asked to make judgments of their personal identity after three hypothetical transformations: self-other, personal continuity-past, and personal continuity-future. Repsonses were rated on an internal/external dimension. (Author/SS)

Tested whether intrinsic motivation depends on matching cognitive level and task demands and assessed effects of rewards and praise on intrinsic motivation. Children preferred tasks just beyond their ability levels. Praise had mixed effects: rewards decreased intrinsic motivation among highly motivated children but did not influence intrinsic…

Investigated relationship between academic achievement and locus of control among 643 elementary school students. Found no main effects for gender or race. Observed significant main effect for condition (at-risk versus not-at-risk), with at-risk students being more externally oriented. Found significant effect for grade, trend being for grade…

This paper presents a study which investigated the relationship between field-dependence, perceptual egocentrism, and inductive reasoning in 53 kindergarten children. The general objective of the study was to assess the validity of the field-dependence measures in early childhood. Field-dependence was found to relate positively with perceptual…

Assessed children's beliefs about the effectiveness of five causes of school success. At the age of 7-8 years, children differentiated the factors into "unknown" and "other"; at 9-10, "other" was differentiated into "internal" and "external"; at 11-12, "internal" was differentiated into…

In order to investigate the relationship between voluntary desegregation and children's self-concept, and perceptions of control over their achievement, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, the Children's Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale (CNS-IE) or the Preschool and Primary Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale…