Biomaterial Database

Locus of control in the black elderly. 1990

S L Tabb

University of Southwestern Louisiana College of Nursing, Department of Baccalaureate Nursing, Lafayette 70504-2490.

There is considerable literature pertaining to the health care of the elderly and nursing has developed educational programmes whose major focus is the geriatric population. Nursing has also begun to recognize needs of people from different cultural backgrounds, which has resulted in the development of programmes in transcultural nursing. In light of this important variable of racial and cultural differences, the purpose of this study is to compare the locus of control of the black elderly to the white elderly. An individual's locus of control could affect their health care practices and beliefs. Locus of control is a measurable concept in psychology which explains how individuals make choices concerning their behaviour. The design is descriptive. Rotter's locus of control scale was used. The sample was based on non-random methods. The settings for this study were senior citizen centres and retirement communities in a midsize midwestern metropolitan area. The mean score for black elderly was 9.074. The scores were analysed with the t-test, which failed to show a significant difference in the scores of the two groups. The results failed to show that black elderly differ significantly from white elderly in regard to locus of control.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007389	Internal-External Control	Personality construct referring to an individual's perception of the locus of events as determined internally by his or her own behavior versus fate, luck, or external forces. (ERIC Thesaurus, 1996).	Locus of Control,External-Internal Control,Sense of Control,Control Locus,Control, External-Internal,Controls, External-Internal,Controls, Internal-External,Internal-External Controls
D001741	Black or African American	A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/1997/10/30/97-28653/revisions-to-the-standards-for-the classification-of-federal-data-on-race-and-ethnicity). In the United States it is used for classification of federal government data on race and ethnicity. Race and ethnicity terms are self-identified social construct and may include terms outdated and offensive in MeSH to assist users who are interested in retrieving comprehensive search results for studies such as in longitudinal studies.	African American,African Americans,African-American,Afro-American,Afro-Americans,Black Americans,Blacks,Negroes,African-Americans,Negro,Afro American,Afro Americans,American, African,American, Black,Black American
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000368	Aged	A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available.	Elderly
D044465	White People	Persons having origins in any of the white racial groups of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. Note that OMB category WHITE is available for the United States population groups. Race and ethnicity terms, as used in the federal government, are self-identified social construct and may include terms outdated and offensive in MeSH to assist users who are interested in retrieving comprehensive search results for studies such as in longitudinal studies.	European Continental Ancestry Group,White Person,Caucasian Race,Caucasoid Race,Caucasian Races,Caucasoid Races,People, White,Person, White,Race, Caucasian,Race, Caucasoid,White Peoples,White Persons