Examining the psychopathological symptoms and the stress coping styles of high school students who have different locus of control

The main purpose of this study is to determine the psychopathological symptoms and stress coping strategies of internal locus of control and external locus of control high school students. The research was conducted in accordance with the general screening model. The indiscriminate sampling method was used in the research. The study was applied to a total of 318 high school students, 120 girls and 198 boys who randomly selected in Istanbul. The Rotter Internal-External Control Locus Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, and Ways of Coping Inventory were used as data collection tools and a short Personal Information Form was created to identify the socio- demographic characteristics of the students. In the study, it was found that psychopathological symptoms of students with external control locus were higher than students with internal control locus. It was determined that the students with an external locus of control are using passive style and the students with an internal locus of control are using active style mostly to cope with stress. When the psychopathological symptoms of girls and boys with the same control focus were examined, it was seen that the psychopathological symptoms of female students were higher than male students and when the methods of coping with stress of the girls and boys who having an internal and external locus of control were examined, it was seen that female students use passive style and male students use active style. The psychopathological symptoms of the students with external control locus decreased as their age increased, whereas the depression levels of students with internal locus of focus increased as their age increased. As the age of the students with external auditing locus grows, the levels of submissive attitudes increase; however the age of students who have an internal control locus increased, their self-confident attitudes levels increase too, but the levels of approach to consulting social support decrease. It has been observed that when the students with external control locus use an active approach to cope with stress, their psychopathological symptoms are reduced. On the other hand, it was determined that using a passive style to cope with stress and increasing the approach to consulting social supports increases psychopathological symptoms of the students with internal control locus.