It's My World? Exploring Black and White Perceptions of Personal Control

Abstract

A positive sense of control over one's life is essential for maintaining health and wellbeing. Those with a strong sense of control believe changes in their social world are responsive to their choices, actions, and efforts. In contrast, a sense of powerlessness or fatalism is on the other end of the continuum. There is little research that explores how race and gender relate to feelings about personal control. To examine their effects on perceptions of personal control, we analyze data from the American Changing Lives Survey, 1986. Controlling for race and gender in the full model led to results that failed to reveal the complexity of relationships when compared with results of analyses among the subgroups. Some key factors distinct for the various groups were, for white men, functional health, positive support from friends and relatives, and having people to share their feelings with; for black men, age and visiting mental health facilities; for white women, visiting medical care facilities, the number of children, tobacco, and having someone to call for help; and, for black women, being involved with organizations (groups, clubs, and churches) and religion. When there are no significant racial or gender differences, examining models simultaneously stratified by race and gender introduced a more dynamic and multidimensional relationship between the control and dependent variables than was previously understood.

Racial and gender disparities in sugar consumption change efficacy among first-year college students

“…Motivation and nutrition knowledge have been found to have implications for diet modification (Beydoun, Powell, & Wang, 2009; Beydoun & Wang, 2008; Livia et al, 2016; Wardle, Parmenter, & Waller, 2000), these factors can also affect confidence to reduce SSB or SSN consumption. Further, socioeconomic status is a variable that has direct and indirect implications for race and gender disparities in outcomes like self-efficacy (Bruce & Thornton, 2004). The analytic models were estimated using data drawn from a sample of first year college students attending a single university in the South in 2005; therefore, the results are not generalizable to African American or White students not in college, those later in their collegiate careers, or those attending college in other regions of the country.…”

Racial Disparities in Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Change Efficacy Among Male First-Year College Students

“…Some important variables were not available to be included in the analysis. Socioeconomic status is a variable that has direct and indirect implications for racial disparities in outcomes like self-efficacy (Bruce & Thornton, 2004). The analytic models are estimated using data drawn from a sample of African American and White male first-year college students attending a single university in the South in 2005; therefore, the results are not generalizable to African American or White males not in college, those later in their collegiate careers or those attending college in other regions of the country.…”

The Politics of the Gene: Social Status and Beliefs about Genetics for Individual Outcomes

“…One possible explanation is offered by the classic social psychological concept of locus of control, which is intended to reflect, among other dimensions, the extent to which individuals regard their fates as caused by their agency versus external circumstances and events. Genes are “inside” us but otherwise share characteristics of external attributions—they can be attributed to outcomes in ways that mitigate perceptions of the responsibility of individuals—and external locus of control has been consistently associated with social disadvantage (e.g., Shaw and Krause 2001; Bruce and Thornton 2004). …”