Effects of mothers' locus of control for child improvement in a developmentally delayed sample

A potentially important variable that has received little attention in the literature is the locus of control (LOC) a caregiver holds for child improv ement, including its influence on the caregiver's treatment compliance and on actual child improvement. In this study, 131 mother-child dyads were ass essed across 1 year, to evaluate the utility of the LOC construct in a prac tice setting. Children were approximately 4 years old at the first assessme nt, and all of them had been diagnosed with a developmental disability. Mot hers' compliance with treatment (mothers' attendance at sessions; teachers' ratings of mothers' support and knowledge) was tracked, and measures of ch ild development status and mothers' locus of control were administered. Sta tistical results indicated that mothers' locus of control was not significa ntly correlated with children's gains in development over the year. The mot hers' beliefs about whether the child or chance would be responsible for im provement were associated with lower compliance with treatment, whereas the mothers' beliefs that child improvement was attributable to professional i ntervention were associated with enhanced involvement in treatment.