THE CORRELATION BETWEEN DEPRESSION AND LOCUS OF CONTROL IN NURSING STUDENTS (COLLEGE STUDENTS).
Contributors: University of South Florida.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 113
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Education.; Psychology, Clinical.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purposes of this study were to determine the level of depression and locus of control in six different categories of students, and to examine the correlation between these two variables.

Depression and locus of control were assessed in beginning, intermediate, and advanced nursing students, as well as comparable groups of non-nursing students. The moderately strong and consistent relationship between depression and locus of control previously reported in the literature was also examined. Five research questions were addressed. They concerned levels of depression and locus of control in nursing students, as compared with non-nursing students, differences in these variables related to course placement, and the correlation between these variables.

The data came from student responses to two instruments: The Beck Depression Inventory and the Rotter Locus of Control Scale. An initial sample of 407 students was drawn; the students were sorted according to category and classification; subjects were matched for age and marital status. The final sample was composed of 35 students in each of six cells (beginning, intermediate, and advanced nursing students and beginning, intermediate, and advanced non-nursing students) for a total of 210 subjects. All were female and were enrolled in Associate of Science degree programs.

This was a causal-comparative study. Descriptive statistics were computed for each of the six groups for both variables. An analysis of variance was the inferential technique utilized to determine differences in means; this was a 2 x 3 between-subjects design.

It was determined that the means of all the students at the beginning of the program did not differ significantly from those of the intermediate or advanced students. Variation in depression and locus of control levels was minimal, either within categories or between categories. Students' means fell within "normal" ranges for depression and "internal" ranges for locus of control. A correlation analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation between depression scores and locus of control scores for the beginning and advanced nursing students but no significant correlation for the intermediate nursing students or the non-nursing students.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-07, Section: A, page: 2893.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA, 1996.

School code: 0206.