Relationship between Dimensions of Locus of Control and Mental Health in Iranian University Students

Objective: Many investigators have attempted to examine the relationship between perceived locus of control and psychological problems. The present study examined this issue on a sample of Iranian University students.

Methods: Study subjects consisted of 134 Iranian University students randomized from seven faculties of Esfahan University of Medical Sciences. The subjects completed the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and Levenson`s multidimensions locus of control scale.

Results: Results of the study indicated that subjects who were more internal had lower scores on the SCL- 90-R. Higher SCL-90-R scores were associated with belief that life was controlled by powerful others and chance. Findings, also, showed a significantly positive correlation between powerful others locus of control and depression, anxiety, somatization, phobic anxiety and paranoid ideation scores, and between chance locus of control and obsessive-compulsive, depression and somatization scores. Although the positive correlations between external locus of control and interpersonal sensitivity, hostility and psychotism were not significant, the negative correlations between internal locus of control and these subscales scores were significant.

Conclusion: The results of this study support some previous findings that all three of Levenson`s scales are associated with measures of maladjustment, with internality negatively correlated and chance and powerful others orientations positively correlated with such measures.