ORIGINS OF GENERALIZED CONTROL EXPECTANCIES - REPORTED CHILD STRESS AND OBSERVED MATERNAL CONTROL AND WARMTH

The relations among reported stressful events, maternal control and wa rmth, and children's locus of control of reinforcement were investigat ed. Fifty-five 2nd-grade, U.S. children completed the Children's Nowic ki-Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, and their moth ers completed a modified form of Coddington's Life Events Scale for th eir child. Mother and child also were videotaped while they worked tog ether on three puzzles. The results indicated that, compared with chil dren with external control expectancies, children with internal contro l expectancies had experienced less stress in their lives. Furthermore , when observed interacting with their children, mothers of children w ith internal control expectancies were rated as displaying less contro l and more warmth than mothers of children with external control expec tancies. The findings generally are consistent with predictions based on Rotter's social learning theory for the development of individual d ifferences in generalized control expectancies.