A Structural Evaluation of the Expanded Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale with a Diverse Sample of Caucasian/European, Native, and Black Canadian Women

Abstract

The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) scale is a widely used measure of the factors that people believe exert some control over their health. The purpose of the research reported here is to provide an independent evaluation of the structural properties of the recently expanded MHLC. Specifically we sought to address the issue of the interdependence of the external locus of control scales (Powerful Others, God, and Chance) and the legitimacy of the addition of a measure of God control as a separate subscale in the expanded MHLC. The study is based on an ethnically diverse sample of 371 community women, recruited through a random digit dialing procedure, who responded to all the items on the expanded MHLC. Although, the three external factors (God, Powerful Others, and Chance) are substantially correlated, structural analyses indicate that a four-factor model consisting of the three external scales and the Internal control scale provides the best fit to the observed covariances among the items. We view this result as supporting the addition of the God subscale as a separate dimension of external health locus of control. We also find support in these results for the continued scoring of four subscales on the MHLC rather than combining the three external subscales on one dimension as some have suggested.