Locus of control and teachers’ perceptions of adolescents’ involvement in aggression

Relevance. The article is devoted to the problem of teachers’ evaluation of risk indicators of aggressive behavior involvement among adolescents. The paper examines the problem of the dependence of the involvement risk assessment on the personal characteristics of the teacher, especially, locus of control. Aim. To assess the relationship between the level of the teacher’s locus of control and their perception of the markers of victimization of adolescents. Materials and Methods. The sample consisted of 4.453 school teachers (94 % are female). The participants are residents of seven regions of the Russian Federation. The method “Level of Subjective Control” (“LSC”) by E. F. Bazhin, E. A. Golynkina, A. M. Etkind was used. To assess teachers’ perceptions of victimization markers, the authors analyzed the answers to the question “How do you usually recognize that the child is suffering aggression?” The question is included in the standardized questionnaire of the Center for Socialization, Family and Prevention of Antisocial Behavior Research of the Moscow State Pedagogical University. Results. The data analysis revealed that teachers who marked the options proposed in the questionnaire as the markers of adolescent victimization have statistically significantly higher scores (higher absolute values) on various subjective locus control scales. Conclusion. Teachers who tend to internality have significantly higher scores on various markers of victimization as indicators of adolescents’ involvement in aggressive behavior.