Psychological Reports, 1987, 60, 355-358.

@ Psychological Reports 1987

SELF-CONTROL, LOCUS OF CONTROL AND

SOCIAL STATUS IN CHILDREN1

MILLLE FERRER AND MURRAY KRANTZ

Florida State University

Summary.-The purpose of the study was to describe the relationship be-

tween locus of control and self-control and the effects of these "control" vari-
ables on achievement of social status by children. Teachers rated 50 third-
grade and 54 fifch-grade children on the Kendall-Wilcox Self-control Rating
Scale and the children completed the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale
for Children. Social acceptance and rejection scores were derived from socio-
metric nominations. Internality and self-control were positively correlated for
children in Grades 3 and 5. Self-control was negatively correlated to social re-
jection at both grades. Internality and self-control combined to predict social
acceptance at Grade 5.

FlaveIl ( 1977) described the achievement of self-control as "one of the . . .

central and significant ccgnitive-developmental hallmarks of the early child-
hood period" (p. 64). The normal course of early development anticipates a
gradual transition from externally imposed control of the child by parents to
progressive increase in self-control by the child. Society's expectation requires
sufficient development of self-control in early development to enable orderly
transfer of power to authority figures in day care and school settings. When
self-control does not proceed on schedule, problems of behavioral disturbance
will characterize the social interaction of such children with adults and peers.
Despite considerable attention to the development of programs for the im-
provement of self-control behaviors by children (Meichenbaum, 1979), very
little is known about the specific psychological mechanisms which underly
the ability to monitor and modulate the behavior of the self.
In a review of methodological problems in assessment of self-control,
Kendall and Wilcox (1982, pp. 254-255) speculated on the relationship be-
tween locus of control and the achievement of self-control. They reasoned
that the child who achieves self-control would be likely to develop attributions
consistent with an internal locus of control. Although Kendall and Wilcox
identified locus of control orientation as a consequent, its role as an antecedent
to the development of self-control seems equally probable, given current state
of theorizing. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the association
between self-control of inappropriate classroom behavior and internal locus
of control.

'Request reprints from Dr. Murray Krantz, Depr. of Home and Family Life, Florida
State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306.
356 M. FERRER 8r M. KRANTZ

The emergence of an internal locus of control and capability of self-control

should have important implications for children's interpersonal functioning
among peers. In particular, there is some evidence that children who take
responsibility for the effects of their behavior on others (i.e., internal locus of
control) achieve greater popularity among peers (Dahlquist & Ottinger,
1983). Similarly, children who can control impulsivity, delay gratification,
and sustain attention might be expected to gain greater social acceptance and
avoid rejection from peers.
The purpose of the study was to describe the relationship between locus
of control and self-control and the effects of these variables on the achievement
of social status of elementaty aged children.

Sabjectr
Fifty third-grade children ( M age 8.3 yr.) and 54 fifth-grade children
( M age 10.1 yr.) participated in the study. The 104 children were all in two
classes at each grade, with about equal numbers of boys and girls in each grade.
The children attended a research school on a university campus and were se-
lected to be representative of the population of the state.

Social acceptance/rejection mas assessed by eliciting three positive and

three negative sociometric nominations from each child within the same-sex
peer group within each class. Social acceptance and social rejection scores
were derived separately by summing the number of positive and negative
nominations received. The Kendall and Wilcox ( 1979) Self-control Rating
Scale was used to obtain 4 teachers' ratings of the children's self-control. The
test elicits 33 ratings of the child's attention span, task persistence, delay of
gratification, and behavioral impulsivity. Kendall and Wilcox ( 1979) reported
high internal consistency and test-retest reliability and evidence of concurrent
and discriminant validity. In a departure from the original scoring procedure,
a high score indicated greater self-control. The Nowicki-Strickland Locus of
Control Scale for Children (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973) was used to assess
locus of control. The authors reported acceptable levels of internal consistency
and test-retest reliability for the age range studied here. In this study a high
score indicated greater internality.

For children in Grades 3 and 5, respectively, means and standard deviations

on internality are 22.62 + 4.68 and 25.13 -t- 5.36; on self-control values are
120.44 f 40.06 and 115.63 -+ 36.87. An analysis of variance of mean scores
on the Nowicki-Strickland scale indicated that the children became more in-
 SELF-CONTROL AND SOCIAL STATUS 357

TABLE 1
PEARSON PRODUCT-MOMENT
CORRELATIONS
AMONG
VARIABLES
BY GRADE

Self-control Internality
Third Fifth Third Fifth
Internality .58* 33"
Acceptance .33* 39" .2 1 .41*
Rejection -.50* -.50" -.I9 -.34$'

ternal (F1,jO3= 6.6, p < .05) but not more self-controlled from third to
fifth grade. There were no main effects for sex and no interactions.
Given the similarity in patterns of correlation by sex, data for boys and
girls were combined within grades. The Pearson product-moment correlations
between self-control and locus of control by grade are presented in Table 1.
Self-control and locus of control were correlated positively and significantly
at third grade ( r = .58, p < .001) and at fifth grade ( r = .33, p < .01).
Children who scored more internal in their locus of control attributions were
more likely to show greater ability to control their own inappropriate classroom
behavior. Although the relationship appeared stronger at Grade 3 than at
Grade 5, the difference was nonsignificant.
The previously demonstrated correlation between locus of control and pop-
ularity (Dahlquist & Ottinger, 1983) was replicated at Grade 5 but not at
Grade 3. Children who were more "internal" were more likely to be accepted
( 7 = .41, p < ,001) and less likely to be rejected ( 7 = -34, 9 < .01) by
peers. As hypothesized, self-control was positively related to social acceptance
and negatively related to social rejection at Grades 3 and 5.
A final analysis concerned the combined effects of locus of control and
self-control in the prediction of social acceptance/rejection. Multiple regres-
sion analysis indicated that the combination of variables improved upon the
univariate prediction of social acceptance in Grade 5 ( R = .48, p < .001).
Self-control emerged as the only significant predictor of social acceptance and
rejection in all other multiple regression analyses.

The results confirmed the contention by Kendall and Wilcox (1982)

that "internal" children's sense of responsibility with respect to social outcomes
would be positively associated with impulse control, delay of gratification, and
regulation of attention in classroom settings. The common element of "con-
trol" in these covarying fzctors suggests a psychological control system which
mediates social and cognitive demands in social settings.
A second question focused on the effect of the "control" variables on the
probability of acceptance/rejection by peers. There were distinct patterns for
358 M. FERRER & M. KRANTZ

acceptance and rejection. Social rejection was primarily affected by the failure
of self-control in both grades; social acceptance was a function of the combined
influence of locus of control and self-control (at Grade 5 ) . In brief, lack of
self-control was sufficient for rejection by peers but social acceptance required
both "internality" and control of the self. These findings suggest that social
acceptance and rejection are not simply opposing extremes on a social con-
tinuum, but distinct psychological constructs. This distinction has important
implications for programs for children who are socially at risk. In view of
the present results the task of fostering "popularity" may prove far more dif-
ficult than avoiding "rejection".
REFERENCES
DAHLQUIST, L. M., & OT~INGER, D. R. (1983) Locus of control and peer scatus: a
scale for children's perceptions of social inreraccions. Journal o f Personality
A ~ ~ e s s m e n47,
t , 278-287.
FLAVELL: J. H. (1977) Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, N J : Prentice-Hall.
KENDALL,P. C., & WILCOX, L. E. (1979) Self-control in children: the development
of a rating scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 47, 1020-1030.
MEICHBNBAUM, D. (1979) Teaching child self-control. I n B. Lahey & A. Kazdin
(Eds.), Advances in child clinical psychology. Vol. 2 . New York: Plenum.
NOWICKI, S., & STRICKLAND,B. R. (1973) A locus of control scale for children.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 40, 148-155.

Accepted December 18, 1986.