Locus of control and personality functioning of learning disabled children

Employment status and perceptions of control of adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities

This study was designed to examine the relationship between individual perceptions of control and employment status among adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities. The literature implies that one factor influencing perceptions of quality of life is the amount of control the person experiences across various domains. It was hypothesized that individuals employed in competitive work situations would evidence more positive perceptions of control than would their peers currently unemployed or employed in sheltered settings. Surveys containing the Adult version of the Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale and requesting information about age, gender, and employment status were mailed to self-advocacy groups. For the more than 200 respondents, there were significant differences in locus of control scores among individuals employed competitively, individuals employed full-time, respondents in sheltered environments, individuals currently unemployed, and all other groups. Individuals unemployed and employed in sheltered settings perceived themselves as having less control than individuals employed competitively. These results are examined in light of quality of life findings, focusing on the need to include choice and control in programming for people with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

Gender differences in locus of control scores for students with learning disabilities

The present investigation examined gender differences on locus of control scores for students with learning disabilities. Scores from two measures of locus of control, the adult version of the Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale and the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire, were compared for 77 boys (M age = 16.3 yr., M IQ = 89.5) and 27 girls (M age = 16.4 yr. and M IQ = 91.2). As groups were of unequal sizes, differences between scores were assessed by an analysis of unweighted means, creating a single harmonic mean and homogeneous subsets for all tests. Significant differences were found by gender on the Nowicki-Strickland inventory. On all assessments girls' means were more external than boys'. These results are discussed in light of recent findings concerning gender and positive adult outcomes for learners with learning disabilities and in relation to gender stereotyping and discrimination.

Learning disabled children as adolescents

Parents of adolescents who had been diagnosed as learning disabled five years previously and parents of non-learning disabled subjects completed a questionnaire in which they were required to rate their children on 30 bipolar adjectives. These adjectives tested the parents' perceptions of their children in the areas of academic and learning orientation, self--satisfaction, delinquency, flexibility, sociability, social skills, dependency, impulsivity/social ease and television watching. The two groups were differentiated from each other in the areas of self--satisfaction, delinquency, flexibility, sociability and social skills. Learning disabled subjects were rated more toward the negative pole of the bipolar adjectives in each of these five areas. The scores of the learning disabled subjects whose performance IQ score on the WISC or WISC--R was greater than their verbal IQ score were compared to the remaining LD subjects. The ratings of the former group of LD subjects were different from those of the latter group in the area of academic and learning orientation, with the former group scoring more in the negative direction.