Are Young People's Educational Outcomes Linked to Their Sense of Control?

Juan Barón (jbaron@worldbank.org) and Deborah Cobb-Clark

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: This paper analyzes the link between young people's sense (locus) of control over their lives and their investments in education. We find that young people with a more internal locus of control have a higher probability of finishing secondary school and, conditional on completion, meeting the requirements to obtain a university entrance rank. Moreover, those with an internal locus of control who obtain a university entrance rank achieve somewhat higher rankings than do their peers who have a more external locus of control. Not surprisingly, there is a negative relationship between growing up in disadvantage and educational outcomes. However, this effect does not appear to operate indirectly by increasing the likelihood of having a more external locus of control. In particular, we find no significant relationship between family welfare history and young people's locus of control.

Keywords: locus of control; parental socio-economic background; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H31 I38 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2010-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads ... series/wp2010n05.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Are Young People's Educational Outcomes Linked to their Sense of Control? (2010)
Working Paper: Are Young People's Educational Outcomes Linked to their Sense of Control? (2010)
Working Paper: Are Young People's Educational Outcomes Linked to their Sense of Control? (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2010n05

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