Locus of Control, Self-Esteem, and Field Independence as Predictors of School Achievement Among Anglo American and Mexican American Children

Abstract

The relation of measures of locus of control, self-esteem, and field independence to the reading and math achievement of 170 Mexican American and Anglo American children is explored. The Anglo American-Mexican American school achievement gap was confirmed, but no significant cultural difference on any personality variable was observed. The intercorrelations among the personality variables and between the personality variables and school achievement were greater among Mexican American children compared to Anglo American children, and the per sonality variables were also more highly related to school achievement for Mexican American children. This pattern of results is discussed as possibly due to (a) a greater impact of school achievement on personality for Mexican Americans; (b) personality differences as more important precursors of school achievement among Mexican Americans; (c) lack of cultural equivalence of meaning of the personality variables; and (d) grade as a mediating variable. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Math and science achievement in English language learners: Multivariate latent growth modeling of predictors, mediators, and moderators.

“…In fact, in that study, growth in identification with academics across the school years was found only among Hispanic females; even their White counterparts showed increasing signs of disidentification over time. Similarly, a global measure of self-esteem has been found to be a significant predictor of achievement in a sample of Mexican American children, but not in an Anglo American sample (Nelson, Knight, Kagan, & Gumbiner, 1980; see also Portes & Zady, 2001). Most recently, Schwartz, Zamboanga, and Hernandez Jarvis (2007) reported a significant path (β = .34) from global self-esteem to academic grades in a structural model of data from 347 Hispanic adolescents.…”

Masculinity and Self‐Esteem in Israeli Jewish Professional Women 1

“…Rotter's I-E scale was used to measure participants' perceived control over life experiences, which has been found to correlate with self-esteem and selfacceptance (Nelson, Knight, Kagen, & Gumbiner, 1980). Therefore, locus of control scores were used for correlational purposes in this study.…”

Masculinity, Femininity, and Hispanic Professional Women's Self‐Esteem and Self‐Acceptance

“…Rotter's (1966) Internal-External (I-E) Locus of Control Scale was used to measure participants' perceived control over life experiences. Because perceived personal control over one's life has been found to correlate with self-esteem and self-acceptance (Long, 1986(Long, , 1989Nelson, Knight, Kagen, & Gumbiner, 1980), locus of control scores were used for correlational purposes in this study. The scale produces a range of raw scores from 0 to 23, with 0 reflecting high internal and 23 reflecting high external locus of control.…”