Abstract
Sense of control plays an important role in the psychological well-being of an individual. This study aims to investigate the impact of locus of control on subjective well-being (SWB). Participants include 400 undergraduates (214 men and 186 women) from four universities in China. Data were collected using the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Trait Anxiety Scale, and SWB measures. Results suggested that locus of control, trait anxiety, and self-esteem were significantly correlated with SWB. Structural equation modeling results indicated that trait anxiety and self-esteem partially mediated the impact of locus of control on SWB. Moreover, bootstrap test revealed significant paths from locus of control to SWB through trait anxiety and self-esteem. Therefore, locus of control, trait anxiety, and self-esteem have significant impacts on SWB. Moreover, trait anxiety and self-esteem have a mediating effect on the impact of locus of control on subjective well-being.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological bulletin, 103(3), 411-423.
Arslan, C., Dilmac, B., & Hamarta, E. (2009). Coping with stress and trait anxiety in terms of locus of control: a study with Turkish university students. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 37(6), 791–800.
Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., & Mhatre, K. H. (2011). A longitudinal analysis of positive psychological constructs and emotions on stress, anxiety, and well-being. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 18(2), 216–228.
Bosson, J. K., Swann Jr., W. B., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2000). Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: the blind men and the elephant revisited? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(4), 631–643.
Cattell, R. B. (1966). The scree test for the number of factors. Multivariate behavioral research, 1(2), 245-276.
Cheung, P. C., & Lau, S. (1985). Self-esteem: its relationship to the family and school social environments among Chinese adolescents. Youth and Society, 16(4), 438–456.
Diener, E. (2012). New findings and future directions for subjective well-being research. American Psychologist, 67(8), 590–597.
Diener, E., & Fujita, F. (1995). Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well-being: a nomothetic and idiographic approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(5), 926–935.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(1), 403–425.
Furnham, A., & Cheng, H. (2000). Perceived parental behavior, self-esteem and happiness. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 35(10), 463–470.
Gan, Y., Shang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2007). Coping flexibility and locus of control as predictors of burnout among Chinese college students. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 35(8), 1087–1098.
Harrow, M., Hansford, B. G., & Astrachan-Fletcher, E. B. (2009). Locus of control: relation to schizophrenia, to recovery, and to depression and psychosis-a 15-year longitudinal study. Psychiatry Research, 168(3), 186–192.
Headey, B., & Wearing, A. (1989). Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: toward a dynamic equilibrium model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(4), 731–739.
He, F., Guan, H., Kong, Y., Cao, R., & Peng, J. (2014). Some individual differences influencing the propensity to happiness: insights from behavioral economics. Social Indicators Research, 119(2), 897-908.
Judge, T. A., Erez, A., Bono, J. E., & Thoresen, C. J. (2002). Are measures of self-esteem, neuroticism, locus of control, and generalized self-efficacy indicators of a common core construct? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 693–710.
Klein, J. D., & Keller, J. M. (1990). Influence of student ability, locus of control, and type of instructional control on performance and confidence. The Journal of Educational Research, 140-146.
Klonowicz, T. (2001). Discontented people: reactivity and locus of control as determinants of subjective well-being. European Journal of Personality, 15(1), 29–47.
Kormanik, M. B., & Rocco, T. S. (2009). Internal versus external control of reinforcement: a review of the locus of control construct. Human Resource Development Review, 8(4), 463–483.
Kostka, T., & Jachimowicz, V. (2010). Relationship of quality of life to dispositional optimism, health locus of control and self-efficacy in older subjects living in different environments. Quality of Life Research, 19(3), 351–361.
Litt, M. D. (1988). Self-efficacy and perceived control: cognitive mediators of pain tolerance. Journal of personality and social psychology, 54(1), 149-160.
Liu, X., Kurita, H., Uchiyama, M., et al. (2000). Life events, locus of control, and behavioral problems among Chinese adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(12), 1565–1577.
Lu, L., & Gilmour, R. (2004). Culture and conceptions of happiness: individual oriented and social oriented SWB. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5(3), 269–291.
Lu, L., & Yang, K. S. (2006). Emergence and composition of the traditional-modern bicultural self of people in contemporary Taiwanese societies. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 9(3), 167–175.
Nasser-Abu Alhija, F., & Wisenbaker, J. (2006). A Monte Carlo study investigating the impact of item parceling strategies on parameter estimates and their standard errors in CFA. Structural Equation Modeling, 13(2), 204–228.
Ng, T. W., Sorensen, K. L., & Eby, L. T. (2006). Locus of control at work: a meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(8), 1057–1087.
Nowicki, S., & Duke, M. P. (1974). A locus of control scale for noncollege as well as college adults. Journal of Personality Assessment, 38(2), 136–137.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the satisfaction with life scale. Psychological Assessment, 5(2), 164–172.
Peng, J., Xiao, W., Yang, Y., Wu, S., & Miao, D. (2014). The impact of trait anxiety on self-frame and decision making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 27, 11–19.
Rogers, W. M., & Schmitt, N. (2004). Parameter recovery and model fit using multidimensional composites: a comparison of four empirical parceling algorithms. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(3), 379–412.
Rosenberg, M. J. (1965). When dissonance fails: on eliminating evaluation apprehension from attitude measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1(1), 28–42.
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1983). State-trait anxiety inventory for adults. Redwood City: Mind Garden, Inc.
Zhang, J., Miao, D., Sun, Y., Xiao, R., Ren, L., Xiao, W., et al. (2014). The impacts of attributional styles and dispositional optimism on subject well-being: a structural equation modelling analysis. Social Indicators Research, 119(2), 757–769.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of Interest
Jun Pu declares that he/she has no conflict of interest.
Hanpo Hou declares that he/she has no conflict of interest.
Ruiyang Ma declares that he/she has no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pu, J., Hou, H. & Ma, R. The Mediating Effects of Self-Esteem and Trait Anxiety Mediate on the Impact of Locus of Control on Subjective Well-Being. Curr Psychol 36, 167–173 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9397-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9397-8