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Locus of control and family stability in
elementary school students
Locus de control y estabilidad familiar en estudiantes
de educación básica
Alexandra Cardenas-Loor
*
Ángela Manobanda-Quinatoa
*
Eva Miles-Cedeño
*
Patricia Genovezzy-Velásquez
*
Abstract
The objective of the study was to determine the incidence of family
cohesion in the formation of locus of control in students of a primary
school in the canton of Quevedo, province of Los Ríos, Ecuador. A
population of 190 individuals was considered, divided into 90
students (47%), 90 parents (47%), and 10 teachers (6%), to whom a
two-question survey was administered, with possible answers:
"agree", "maybe", and "disagree". Forty-eight percent of the students
considered that interpersonal relationships influence the
development of their personality and interpersonal relationships,
while 53% indicated that they were capable and prepared to defend
*Degree in Education with mention in Early Childhood
Education. Master's Degree in Psychopedagogy. Private
Educational Unit ADONAI, Quevedo. Ecuador.
alexandracardenasadonai@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-
0002-9791-3679
* Degree in Psychology. School of Regular Municipal Education
"Juan de Dios Avilés Zárate", Quevedo. Ecuador.
pilarmanobandaadonai@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-
0002-7475-9824
* D. in Educational Sciences, Specialty: Socio-Educational
Research. Instituto Superior Tecnológico Ciudad de Valencia
(ISTCV) emieles@institutos.gob.ec; https://orcid.org/0000-
0003-3953-327X
* Engineer in Business Administration. Master in Business
Administration (MBA). Unidad Educativa Particular "Genesis",
Quevedo-Ecuador. pattyrocig76@gmail.com;
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8556-5777
Article
Unidad Educativa Particular ADONAI, Quevedo. Ecuador.
* Degree in Psychology. Escuela de Educación Regular
Municipal "Juan de Dios Avilés Zarate", Quevedo. Ecuador.
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their personal interests. As for the parents, 57% considered that inter-
family communication facilitates interpersonal relationships in an
optimal way, and 34% considered that their constituents feel that the
events in their lives are determined by the people who have authority
over them. Forty percent of the teachers maintained that students'
personal actions determine their present and future, while 60%
shared the idea that the number of friends a student has is "maybe"
determined by his or her likeability. Children and adolescents should
consider that a person's actions will always have consequences, so
they should be the ones to make the most appropriate decisions,
based on prior guidance from their parents or guardians.
Keywords: Authority, self-esteem, family, personality,
interpersonal relationships.
Resumen
El objetivo del estudio fue conocer la incidencia de la cohesión
familiar en la formación del locus de control en estudiantes de una
escuela de educación básica del cantón Quevedo, provincia de Los
Ríos, Ecuador. Se consideró una población de 190 individuos,
divididos en 90 estudiantes (47%), 90 padres/madres (apoderados)
de familia (47%), y 10 docentes (6%), a quienes se les aplicó una
encuesta de dos preguntas, cuyas posibles respuestas fueron: “de
acuerdo”, “tal vez”, y “en desacuerdo”. El 48% de los alumnos(as)
consideraron que las relaciones interpersonales influyen en el
desarrollo de su personalidad y en las relaciones interpersonales,
mientras que el 53% señalaron ser capaces y estar preparados para
defender sus intereses personales. En cuanto a los apoderados, el
57% consideró que la comunicación interfamiliar facilita las
relaciones interpersonales de manera óptima, y el 34% consideró que
sus representados sienten que los acontecimientos de su vida están
determinados por la gente que tiene autoridad sobre ellos. El 40% de
los docentes sostuvieron que las acciones personales de los alumnos
determinan su presente y futuro, mientras que el 60% comparte la
idea que la cantidad de amigos que posee un estudiante “tal vez” está
determinada por su simpatía. Los niños y adolescentes deben
considerar que las acciones de una persona, siempre tendrán
consecuencias, por lo que deben ser ellos quienes tomen las
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decisiones más oportunas, basadas en una orientación previa de sus
padres o apoderados.
Palabras clave: Autoridad, autoestima, familia, personalidad,
relaciones interpersonales.
Introduction
Family cohesion is a conglomerate of elements united by procedural
norms and efficient situations in constant internal interaction, where
the individual obtains his first experiences, values and thoughts of
the world. In this sense, family cohesion is important to face internal
multiplicities and the environment itself, where the conflicts of daily
life, including ailments in some member that integrates it, can
change it or conversely it can follow its course already determined
in society (Buitrago Matamoros et al., 2017; Cárdenas-Loor et al.
2021a).
Concomitant with the above, Cárdenas-Loor et al. (2021b) mention
that at present, young people develop in a changing environment,
where the organization, distribution and functioning of the family
have changed, conceiving new forms of correspondence within the
family system and therefore, new ways of distinguishing this
relationship by the subject, and therefore it is necessary to know
what is the appreciation of the adolescent community on the
complacency they have with their family.
It is plausible to imagine that there are families that in the process of
their development, endogenous problems have led to failures,
however, the positivist attitude can also contribute to improvements
and in their daily life teaching-learning process, individuals acquire
skills that prepare them to face crisis situations, where it is necessary
to show mental strength before and after the crisis (Cárdenas-Loor
et al., 2021c).
In recent decades, work has been done insistently on an element of
personality, called Locus of Control, or control of internal versus
external reinforcement, within the field of psychology. However, its
practical application in educational environments, is still insipient,
so it is necessary to know to what extent family cohesion acts on the
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locus of control, including student performance in learning processes
(Cobb-Clark, 2015).
This article shows the results of a study carried out with students of
the ADONAI School of Basic Education, where the development of
their personality, autonomy, recognition of their principles, and the
results of their behavior were analyzed and contrasted with family
cohesion and locus of control. Therefore, the incidence of family
cohesion in the formation of the locus of control in the students of
the ADONAI School of Basic Education was studied.
Materials and methods
Place and target population of the study. The research was conducted
at the ADONAI Private Educational Unit, located in the canton of
Quevedo, province of Los Ríos, Republic of Ecuador. A population
of 190 individuals was considered for the study, divided into 90
students (47%), 90 parents (47%), and 10 teachers (6%) to whom a
survey consisting of two questions was administered (Table 1).
Table 1. Survey consisting of perception questions asked to students,
parents and teachers of the ADONAI Private Educational Unit.
No.
STUDENT SURVEY
ALTERNATIVES
1
Do you consider that interpersonal
relationships influence the development
of your personality?
Agreed
Perhaps
Disagree
Do you consider that you are usually
capable and feel prepared to defend your
personal interests?
Agreed
Perhaps
Disagree
No.
PARENT SURVEY
ALTERNATIVES
1
Agreed
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Do you think that communication in the
family facilitates the relationship with
people in an optimal and satisfactory
way?
Perhaps
Disagree
Do you think your client has come to feel
that what happens in his life is very much
determined by the people in authority
over him?
Agreed
Perhaps
Disagree
No.
SURVEY OF TEACHERS
ALTERNATIVES
1
Do you believe that the lives of your
students are determined by their own
actions, such as, for example, considering
that having few or many friends depends
on one's destiny?
Agreed
Perhaps
Disagree
Do you consider that for your students the
number of friends you have is determined
by your own likeability?
Agreed
Perhaps
Disagree
The results were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools
(percentages and arithmetic means), and the figures were designed
using the Excel spreadsheet.
Results
Influence of interpersonal relationships on personality development.
Forty-eight percent of the students surveyed considered that
interpersonal relationships influence their personality development;
however, 31% considered that interpersonal relationships do not
always have an impact on personality, while 21% strongly disagreed
(Figure 1).
Appreciation (%) of the students of the ADONAI Private
Educational Unit on the influence of interpersonal relationships on
personality development.
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Ability and preparedness to defend students' personal interests.
Slightly more than half of the students surveyed (53%) indicated that
they are capable and prepared to defend their personal interests,
while 41% were hesitant, answering "maybe". A low percentage of
students (6%) indicated feeling unable to defend themselves.
Inter-family communication and optimal and satisfactory
interpersonal relationships. Figure 3 shows that 57% of the parents
consider that inter-family communication facilitates interpersonal
relationships in an optimal and satisfactory manner, while 24%
showed doubts in this regard when they answered "maybe". Finally,
19% of the parents surveyed did not agree that inter-family
communication facilitates interpersonal relationships.
Perception of the influence of authority over events in their
constituent's life. Thirty-four percent of the parents surveyed felt that
their constituent has felt that what happens in his or her life is very
much determined by the people in authority over him or her, while
47% stated that "maybe" this could be happening, indicating doubt
in this regard. The remaining 19% indicated that they do not agree
that authority has influence over events in their child's life.
48%48%48
31%31%31
21%21%21
De acuerdo Tal vez En desacuerdo
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The lives of your students are determined by their own actions, e.g.,
to consider that having few or many friends depends on one's
destiny?
Figure 5 shows that the majority of teachers believe that the personal
actions of students do indeed determine their present and future. In
this sense, 40% of the teachers agree and the other 40% think that
this may be so. However, a minority (20%) do not agree that
students' actions influence their present and future life.
Most of the teachers share the idea that the number of friends a
student has "maybe" is determined by his or her likeability, however,
20% agree with this thought and the remaining 20% consider
themselves in disagreement.
Discussion
Considering that self-control is a subjective representation of
individuals' own abilities to control or modify important events in
their lives, this belief becomes the basis of behavior, and constitutes
the previous step for the planning and execution of purpose-oriented
actions. In this sense, when there is the conviction of a person's own
security to carry out an action, it is easier to reach the desired goal
(Carrillo-Álvarez & Díaz-Barajas, 2016).
In this sense, González-Hernández, & Alto-Gil (2019), point out that
interpersonal relationships in the personality development of
children and adolescents, will always have a significant degree of
incidence, to such an extent that an adolescent will almost always
relate socially with his environment, so he will have to compare,
judge and decide who to follow, whether or not to obey and for,
above all, what consequences to assume in life. The results achieved
in this research, where most of the students agreed that personal
relationships influence the personality development of adolescents,
are concomitant with what was expressed by González-Hernández,
& Alto-Gil (2019). Among one of the challenges faced by children
and adolescents in their academic training, is the conviction to
defend their personal interests, detecting that in the ADONAI
Educational Unit, more than half of its students are able to do so. For
Gómez de la Torre-Vargas (2018), this intrinsic sense of each
student, obeys to the fact that the social ties of every individual are
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sustained by the bonds they can develop, and that the strengthening
of family cohesion always predominates, so that children and
adolescents can develop personality traits, such as the locus of
control that will allow them to interact in their environment, without
fears or prejudices.
Family communication is surely a determining condition for the
establishment of adequate relationships (friendships), and this
human value was reflected in the students analyzed, where 57% of
them agree that relationships in the family are important to generate
lasting friendships. This thinking externalized by the students is also
reported in the scientific literature, where researchers such as
Esteves-Villanueva et al. (2020), Garcés-Prettel et al. (2020), agree
that the family bond depends on the parents, who, in general, are the
ones who preside and lead a household, highlighting that by this
means the children create sustainable relationships and can choose
which ones are more convenient according to their priorities.
It is plausible to understand the apprehension of parents regarding
their children leaving the comfort and security of their home to begin
or continue their academic education, but this event, in addition to
being part of the stages of life of every individual, is necessary to
strengthen their self-sufficiency, always within a framework of
respect generated by an authority, whether at home or at school. This
affirmation is concomitant with 48% of the parents studied, who
agree that (educational) authority has an influence on the events in
the life of their child. In this sense, parents should instill in their
children and, at the same time, provide them with the necessary tools
to strengthen their personality, always giving priority to their needs,
giving priority to personal needs rather than those of others (Marín-
Iral et al., 2019).
For Pire-Rojas & Rojas-Valladares (2020), responsibility is part of
the life of every individual since he/she has the capacity for
discernment, and is a function of age and roles in society. From this
point of view, children and adolescents have responsibility in some
aspects of their lives, depending on their physiological maturity. In
this sense, the responses of the teachers in this study reflected that
40% "agreed" and another 40% thought that "maybe" the actions
(responsibilities) of the students determine their present and future
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64
life. Children and adolescents should understand that a person's
actions will always have consequences, so they should be the ones
to make the most appropriate decisions, based on prior guidance
from their parents or guardians (Rojas-Avilés et al., 2021).
Finally, from the teachers' point of view, 60% of them considered
that "maybe" interpersonal relationships between children and
adolescents are determined by their own likeability. However, from
the psychological point of view of children and adolescents, the fact
that "the nicer you are, the more friends you will have", could
generate self-esteem problems, as stated by Naranjo-Pou et al.
(2020a). In this sense, children and adolescents should understand
the importance of trying to be authentic and not pretend to be
comfortable in situations that generate contrary emotions, because
they want to be accepted by their peers in certain groups (Naranjo-
Pou et al., 2020b).
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