Head Start is a federally funded preschool program for poor children designed to help close the gap between those children and their more advantaged peers before they begin public schooling. Given that Head Start appears to have positive long-run impacts on its recipients, a natural and important next question to ask is: What are the channels…

The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scale has been shown to be a significant predictor of later cognitive outcomes in many cultures. Therefore identifying factors associated with HOME could be used to promote child development. Maternal psychological well-being is often overlooked although critical in the creation of…

This document is a literature review discussing research on locus of control, particularly as it relates to early childhood education. Some measures of children's sense of locus of control are discussed, including the Optimism-Pessimism Test Instrument and the Stanford Preschool Internal-External Scale. A discussion of how an educator's sense of…

Discusses the influence of culture and family and the importance of self-esteem in the development of competency in young children. Describes the role of the teacher in creating a developmentally appropriate environment that fosters self-initiated learning and a personal locus of control. (SH)

Reports on a study of 120 (60 boys, 60 girls) middle school students in Bophuthatswana on the relation of academic achievement to self-concept and locus of control. Finds that measures of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism are related negatively to school achievement. (CFR)