Perceived Competence among Rural Middle School Children: Parental Antecedents and Relation to Locus of Control

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between perceived competence and locus of control in a sample of rural middle school children and sought to determine potential antecedents to perceived competence in the form of parental behaviors. Subjects were 322 5th-8th grade students attending school in a southwestern state. Children at all grade levels were administered (a) the Perceived Competence Scale for Children, (b) the Nowicki Internal-Extemal Locus of Control Scale, and (c) the Cornell Parent Behavior Inventory. Pearson correlations between the perceived competence scores and the locus of control scores revealed a strong association between these two personal causation constructs for both males and females. Correlations between perceived competence scores and mothers' and fathers' behavior dimension scores revealed that supporting behaviors were consistently associated with perceived competence in a positive way and that punishing behaviors were consistently correlated with perceived competence in a negative way. One discrepancy to these findings was in the domain of physical competence; neither males nor females perceived their mothers' supportive behaviors to relate to their competence in this area. Discussion focused on interpretation of these results as they relate to the development of perceived competence in children.