Role of Locus of Control on Students Happiness with the Mediating of Optimism and Hope

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to present and test amodel of the effect of the students' locus of control on happiness with the mediation role of optimism and hope. Therefore 377 participates, including 234 males and 143 females, were selected from among the students of a nonprofit institute of higher education and then were asked to respond to the items of Rotter's Locus of Control and Adult Hope Scales, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Life Orientation Test. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research model. Also, to investigate the indirect effects of the research model, bootstrapping method was used. The results showed that the fit indices for the research model were in the favorable range; therefore, the model was consistent with the data. Also, the direct effects of the model showed that the effect of locus of control on the optimism was significant, the effect of hope on happiness was significant, the effect of the locus of control and optimism on hopefulness was also significant , but the effect of optimism on happiness was not significant. Finally, the results showed that all of the indirect effects of the model were significant and the locus of control had a significant effect with the mediation of optimism and hope, on the students' sense of happiness. Therefore, it seems necessary to consider these factors as the influential factors promoting happiness.

Keywords

• locus of control
• happiness
• optimism
• hope
• students