Locus of Control and Child-Rearing Practices in Intrinsically Motivated and Extrinsically Motivated Children

A sample of 177 students from Grades 5 and 10 were given the Choice Motivator Scale, a measure of individual differences in motivational orientation, the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale, and the Parent-Child Relation Questionnaire. A stepwise regression analysis with the latter two scales, age, and sex as predictors was employed with motivational orientation as a criterion variable. Four variables significantly predicted intrinsic motivation: Love-Reject (father), Attention (father), Locus of Control (successes), and Age. Intrinsically motivated children tended to perceive their fathers as more loving and less rejecting, giving less attention (protecting), and were more internally controlled and older than externally motivated children. Effects of parental child-rearing practices have been related to the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. A social-personality explanation is offered to explain the prediction of motivational orientation by locus of control and age.

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