Maternal Locus of Control and Child Skills Development

Authors – Greta Morando, Sonkurt Sen, Almudena Sevilla.

Abstract :

This paper establishes the impact of maternal locus of control (LoC), a generalized beliefs about returns to investment, on child development. By implementing a value-added model within the rich Millennium Cohort Study data, we find that maternal LoC positively affects child socio-emotional development. However, there is no significant impact on child cognitive development. Our decomposition analysis reveals that the socio-economic gradient in maternal LoC partly explains differences in child socio-emotional development. Additionally, we demonstrate that maternal LoC positively impacts both educational and recreational parental investments in children.