Locus of control and marital satisfaction: Couple perspectives using Australian data

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.We investigate the effect of own and partner locus of control (LOC) on marital satisfaction using household longitudinal data from Australia. We also examine how the evolution of marital satisfaction over time depends on LOC. LOC indicates whether one believes that one's outcomes are more under personal control (internal LOC) or more under the control of external forces such as luck, fate or powerful others (external LOC). LOC orientation likely affects spouses' perception of marital problems and their willingness to utilize relationship-maintenance strategies when marital problems arise. We find that more internal LOC is associated with higher marital satisfaction and that own LOC matters more for marital satisfaction than spouse's LOC. Couples in which the husband is more externally oriented experience declines in marital satisfaction over time relative to couples in which the husband is more internally oriented. JEL Classification:D1, J12

Locus of control and saving: The role of saving motives

“…There are different ways to construct locus of control variables. A common approach in the literature consists in adding scores from questions eliciting locus of control (Cobb-Clark and Schurer, 2013;Kesavayuth et al, 2020;Lee and McKinnish, 2019;Wijbenga and van Witteloostuijn, 2007), their standardized values (Coleman and DeLeire, 2003) or computing their average (Schnitzlein and Stephani, 2016). Some studies use this aggregate measure and identify respondents with internal rather than external locus of control depending on their relative position in the distribution, e.g.…”

“…Our paper contributes to the literature studying the relevance of locus of control on several dimensions of individual behavior. Previous research finds that internal locus of control is related to higher marital satisfaction (Lee and McKinnish, 2019), which may have implications on marital duration, individual and family economic decisions. A key dimension for locus of control is human capital investment.…”

“…Answers in the original dataset are reported in ranges of values; we impute the central value for each bracket and the boundary for the extreme brackets. See the Supplementary Material for details.5 As an example, we list the statements used to elicit locus of control in the Australian HILDA dataset(Cobb-Clark et al, 2016Kesavayuth et al, 2020;Lee and McKinnish, 2019). Respondents indicate how much they agree with the following statements: (1) I have little control over the things that happen to me; (2) There is really no way I can solve some of the problems I have; (3) There is little I can do to change many of the important things in my life; (4) I often feel helpless in dealing with the problems of life; (5) Sometimes I feel that I am being pushed around in life; (6) What happens to me in the future mostly depends on me; and (7) I can do just about anything I really set my mind to do.…”

A systematic review of relationship maintenance: Reflecting back and looking to the future

“…The traits of wanting to be valued and perceived to be valued by others have both been independently associated with maintenance mechanisms such as positive sentiment toward partners, self‐reported maintenance behaviors, perceptions of partners' maintenance behaviors (e.g., enacting sacrifice, affection, warmth, and support), and observations of responsive and unresponsive behaviors (Lemay & Spongberg, 2015). An internal locus of control has been found to relate to perceptions of partner willingness to engage in relationship maintenance strategies in response to relational problems (Lee & McKinnish, 2019). Tendencies toward self‐compassion and conscientious (Baker & McNulty, 2011), as well as relational orientations such as communal versus exchange (Stafford, 2020b), have also been explored.…”

Subjective Wellbeing Dynamics

“…In the HILDA Survey, locus of control is measured using the Perarlin Mastery Scale (Pearlin and Schooler 1978). It has been shown using this measure that having an internal locus of control-meaning that the person believes they are in control-is positively associated with savings (Cobb-Clark, Kassenboehmer and Sinning 2016), healthy lifestyle habits (Cobb-Clark, Kassenboehmer and Schurer 2016) and higher marital satisfaction (Lee and McKinnish 2019).…”