Developmental investigation of elementary and high school students' beliefs in a just world in terms of locus of control and parental attitudes

The aim of this study was to find out about adolescents' beliefs in a just world and the development of this belief among middle school and high school students aged 13–18. Within this context, an original scale measuring the fair world beliefs of the adolescents was developed first. Using this scale, participants' just world beliefs were examined in terms of demographic variables, locus of control and parental attitudes. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 22.00 program. Results reflected that gender, socio-economic level and parental education level did not significantly affect the just world beliefs of adolescents and just world beliefs weakened as adolescents got older - with some specific age breakpoints. It has also been found that adolescents with internal locus of control and parents with democratic parental attitudes is related to having a strong just world belief.