The Relationship between Locus of Control and Academic Adaptability Among College Students: Mediating Effect of Academic Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Learning adaptability is a necessary condition for students to complete their learning tasks and achieve good performance. From the connotation of locus of control, academic self-efficacy and learning adaptability, we can see that there is a strong logical connection among the three. The aim of this paper was to explore the characteristics of locus of control, academic self-efficacy and learning adaptability in college students, and analyze the relationship among the above 3 variables. Stratified random sampling was used to select five hundred and nineteen college students from 7 universities in Guangdong Province. They were investigated with Academic Self- Efficacy Scale (ASES), Learning Adaptability Scale for College Students (LAS), and Internality, Powerful Others, and Chance Scale (IPC). The survey results indicated the following three points. First, the total scores of ASES, LAS, IPC were (68.90±10.95), (95.61± 15.46), (27.70±5.65), (18.06±7.73) and (19.65±6.83), respectively; Second, there was a pairwise correlation among the scores of internality, academic ability self-efficacy and LAS (r=0.69, 0.37, 0.61, all P<0.01), a pairwise correlation among the scores of internality, academic behavior self-efficacy and LAS (r=0.67, 0.37, 0.23, all P<0.01), as well as a pairwise correlation among the scores of internality, academic self-efficacy and LAS (r=0.71, 0.37, 0.55, all P<0.01); Third, the scores of academic ability self-efficacy, academic behavior self-efficacy and academic self-efficacy played a partly mediating effect in the relationship between the score of internality and LAS, with the mediation effect counting for 57.8 %, 27.2 % and 72.9% of the total effect, respectively. It is therefore suggested that internality not only has a direct role on the learning adaptability of college students, but also indirectly affects it through academic self-efficacy.