Internal and external locus of control in college students indulging in substance use in a northern state of India

ABSTRACT

Background/objective

Substance use and willingness to quit is determined by internal attribution (i.e., attribution of the cause to oneself) and external attribution (i.e., attribution of the cause to external factors).

Methods

It is an ex-post-facto study among 300 colleges students who were using substances and those who were not using any substances (100 male & 50 females in each group) in the age group of 18–24 years. Attribution of Success and Failure (ASUFA) Inventory was used and dimensions of internal and external locus of control were analyzed for both the groups. Statistical techniques of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Post hoc Duncan multiple range test using LSD method were applied to the collected data.

Results

The results of four components of the internal attribution style were found to be significant (F = 830.818, p < .01). Females using substances and free from use of substances scored higher on internal attribution as compared to males of the same attribute. In external attribution males using substances and free from use of substances scored significantly higher as comped to females in comparative groups (F = 6.384, p < .01).

Conclusion

Students scored significantly low on internal attribution style but high on external locus of control in comparison to students not using any substances.

KEYWORDS:

• Attribution style
• internal locus of control
• external locus of control
• substance use

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.