Children's beliefs in internal-external control and self-esteem as related to academic achievement.

Previous work has shown high self-esteem to be related to an internal locus of control (LOC) orientation. Both have been shown to be related to academic achievement. It was hypothesized that LOC and self-esteem are each independently related to achievement, and that these relationships may vary according to the sex of the child and the measure of achievement used. Subjects were 113 ten-year-old, fourth grade children, 60 males and 53 females. They were administered questionnaire measures of LOC and self-esteem (Nowicki-Strickland and Piers-Harris). An internal LOC orientation was significantly related to greater academic achievement and high self-esteem. Males' LOC scores were related to grade point averages and not achievement test scores, while the reverse held for females. Differential socialization of females from males might account for the lack of a relationship between grades and LOC.