Locus of control in behaviourally disordered children

It is widely held that behaviourally disordered children have greater difficulty than their peers in recognising a contingent relationship between their actions and subsequent outcomes (i.e., they have a relatively external locus of control) yet studies have not examined intra-group differences within this population. For this reason, this study explored the relationship between a number of specific behaviours and locus of control in 237 children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling were employed to group locus of control items and behaviours in ways which might assist prediction. The findings indicated very little relationship between locus of control and behaviour. It is suggested that clinicians working with behaviourally disordered children should treat the claims for the construct's therapeutic importance with a degree of caution.