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Stability in a Measure of Children's Health Locus of Control
Author(s) -
O'Brien Robert W.,
Bush Patricia J.,
Parcel Guy S.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1989.tb04691.x
Subject(s) - locus of control , psychology , developmental psychology , scale (ratio) , clinical psychology , psychometrics , demography , gerontology , medicine , geography , cartography , sociology
Increased interest in children's health locus of control has precipitated continued examination of the psychometric properties of scales measuring this concept. The Children's Health Locus of Control scale (CHLC) was administered to more than 1,000 urban black students in each of four years across three grade levels: Year 1 ‐ grades four‐six to Year 4 ‐ grades seven‐nine. Factor analyses revealed five factors forming scales with acceptable reliability at each year. Students' beliefs that they have control over their own health increased as a function of age. Beliefs in self‐control had low, negative correlations with measures of external control. Stability of CHLC and the relatively simple procedure (16 dkhotomous items) suggest that, despite problems with wording of some items, CHLC is an appropriate and efficient measure for comparing cross‐sectional and longitudinal samples in this age range.