Age Changes in Children's Beliefs of Internal and External Control

In this study I assessed whether age changes exist in children's beliefs of control and analyzed the expectancy of locus of control as a multidimensional concept. The Multidimensional Scale of Locus of Control for children (Richaud de Minzi, 1991) was administered to 186 boys and girls, ages 6, 9, and 12 years. The results support the hypothesis that locus of control shifts from externality toward internality. When analyzing intemality and externality before both success and failure, only younger children felt responsible for their successes but attributed failure to external causes. Younger children did not differentiate between instrumental and affective modalities, but older children showed a more instrumental than affective internal belief of control. At all ages, the modality referred to as control by powerful others predominated over fatalism. Only younger children could not differentiate between personal and ideological factors of locus of control.