Reinforcement-Responsibility Differences in Birth Order,Grade Level,and Sex of Children in Grades 4,5,and 6

Abstract

This study was concerned with examining reinforcement-responsibility, a measure of locus of control, and its possible relationship to several demographic variables; sex, birth order, and grade level. The sample consisted of 800 elementary school children in Grades 4, 5, and 6. Data were analyzed by a 2 × 3 × 3 unbalanced factorial design with a co-variate adjustment (sex by birth order by grade level). Results indicated that only-born children assume credit for a lesser number of positive events than first- or later-borns, that fourth graders were more inclined than fifth and sixth graders to assume credit for their successes and less likely to accept responsibility for their failures, and females were more accepting of blame for failures than males (p ≤ .05) for all comparisons.