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Title: You Have to Believe: The Effects of Locus Of Control and Self-Efficacy on Welfare Use and Long-Term Outcomes
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Kozimor-King, Michele Lee |
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You Have to Believe: The Effects of Locus Of Control and Self-Efficacy on Welfare Use and Long-Term Outcomes Ph.D. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 2005. DAI-A 66/04, p. 1516, Oct 2005 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Occupational Status; Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Self-Esteem; Self-Perception; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Welfare Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Numerous studies have examined locus of control and self-efficacy as predictors of individual differences in the human experience including unemployment, health, homelessness, occupational choice, and academic performance. Most of these studies have found that control over life outcomes and judged capability to perform a given action influence future goals and attainment including outcomes in education, work skills, labor market experience, and demographic characteristics (such as fertility and marriage). In contrast, most of the current research on the socioeconomic attainment of welfare recipients focuses on human capital characteristics and family background variables. What is largely overlooked in the welfare literature is an analysis of how self-beliefs formed and measured early in life influence future goals and attainment. This dissertation examines the effects of locus of control and self-efficacy on the likelihood of welfare use, five-year outcomes, and wages of former welfare recipients using data from the 1979 through 2000 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Binary logistic regression estimates confirm that social psychological characteristics formed early in life are initially related to welfare use. As expected, women with external locus of control and low occupational self-efficacy are more likely to receive welfare than those with an internal locus. While the social psychological predictors do not appear to have strong or robust direct effects on welfare outcomes past initial entry or on socioeconomic attainment five years following an initial exposure, occupational self-efficacy provides a notable exception. The effects of classical predictors of welfare outcomes, human capital and family background characteristics, appear to have the strongest effects on the likelihood of ever receiving welfare, five-year welfare outcomes, and socioeconomic attainment. Results of this study suggest that more research on the effect of social psychological predictors on welfare outcomes and long term socioeconomic attainment of welfare recipients should be conducted where changes in locus of control and self-efficacy using a domain-specific construct are measured after initial exposure to welfare. As it stands, the results of this dissertation have important implications for the current welfare system, especially concerning time restrictions and self-sufficiency goals. |
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Bibliography Citation
Kozimor-King, Michele Lee. You Have to Believe: The Effects of Locus Of Control and Self-Efficacy on Welfare Use and Long-Term Outcomes. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 2005. DAI-A 66/04, p. 1516, Oct 2005. |