Age differences in adults' control beliefs related to life goals and concerns.

Control beliefs play an important role in how people direct their own development during their life span. However, research into age differences in control beliefs has produced inconsistent results. In this study, 381 subjects (19 to 71 years old) completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to write down their goals and concerns. They were then asked to rate each on a 4-point bipolar rating scale measuring internality-externality. The results showed that subjects' control beliefs became more external with age. However, part of the increase in externality was found to be caused by increasing interest in domains that are generally considered uncontrollable. Subjects' beliefs about health-, self-, offspring-, and property-related goals became more external with age, unlike goals concerning future education, occupation, family, and travel.

The changing parent-child relationship, self-esteem, and intelligence as determinants of orientation to the future during early adolescence.

In order to study how parent-child interaction, self-esteem and intelligence influence adolescents' orientation to the future, 57 11-year-old and 56 15-year-old adolescents were interviewed about their hopes for the future. The content and extension of each hope, as well as the levels of internality, optimism and realization, were estimated from the answers. The results showed that a high level of family discussion increased interest in a future family. The influences of parental control and family discussion, however, change as adolescents grow older: the more 11-year-olds reported parental control, the less optimistic they were about the future but the more steps they had taken to realize their hopes. On the other hand, the higher the level of family discussion adolescents reported at the age of 15, the more optimistic they were and the more they had realized their hopes. Adolescents with high self-esteem were more internal in their thinking about the future than those with low self-esteem.