Specificity of Relations Between Children's Control-Related Beliefs and Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology

The authors examined the specificity of the relation between 3 types of control-related beliefs and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in a sample of 290 clinic-referred children aged 7 to 17 years. Self-reported beliefs about control (the capacity to cause an intended outcome), contingency (the degree to which a desired outcome can be controlled by a relevant behavior), and competence (an individual's ability to produce the relevant behavior) across 3 domains (academic, behavioral, and social) showed more specific relations with psychopathology than have been previously reported. Among children with externalizing psychopathology, internalizing psychopathology may be specifically associated with increased self-critical awareness about their conduct; externalizing psychopathology may attenuate the specific negative relation between internalizing psychopathology and control-related beliefs in the social domain.