Influence of age, gender, and perceived self-control on future goals of children in adversities

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of age, gender, and perceived self-control on future goals of children with adversities situated in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Using a cross-sectional research design, 100 out-of-school children were conveniently selected from the streets, workshops, and stores after due consent to participate in the study. The mean age of participants was 14.3 (SD = .72) with age ranging from 8 to 16 years. The independent variables were age, gender and perceived self-control. The outcome variable was future goals measured with Snyder et al. J Pediatr Psychol, 22(3), 399-421, (1997) children hope scale. Results showed that there is a significant difference between pre-adolescents and adolescents in their orientation towards future goals {F(1, 93) = 23.65, p < 0.05}. Results further showed that male and female participants did not differ significantly in their orientation towards future goals {F(1, 93) = 0.54, p > 0.05}. Also, it was revealed that children that were low in perceived self-control did not differ from those that are high in perceived self-control {F(1, 93) = 2.56, p > 0.05}. As a conclusion, we observed that the independent variables interacted together to influence the future goal of children in adversities and recommendations were made based on the findings of the study.