Locus of Control and Students’ Academic Achievement Level of Attributional Ambiguity in Public Secondary Schools in Bomet East Sub-County, Kenya

ABSTRACT : Background: Examination results do not explain themselves, and students must decide whether a grade reflects ability, effort, preparation, task difficulty or circumstances beyond their control. Locus of control, the belief about whether outcomes are determined by one’s own actions or by outside forces, is the selfperceptual construct theoretically closest to this causal reasoning, yet its influence on how clearly students can explain their results is unknown in rural Kenyan secondary schools. Objective: To determine the influence of locus of control on students’ academic achievement level of attributional ambiguity in Bomet East Sub-County, Kenya. Methods: A correlational, cross-sectional design guided by Attribution Theory and Social Cognitive Theory was used. A sample of 365 Form Four students in 19 of 48 public secondary schools was drawn through purposive selection of schools, probability proportional to size allocation and simple random sampling. A selfadministered five-point Likert questionnaire measured locus of control (higher scores indicating stronger external control) and attributional ambiguity. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and simple linear regression in SPSS at the .05 level. Results: The response rate was 100%. Locus of control (M = 72.08, SD = 11.36) was positively and significantly correlated with attributional ambiguity (M = 55.41, SD = 18.52), r = .283, p < .001, 95% CI [.186, .375]. Locus of control predicted ambiguity (R² = .080, F(1, 363) = 31.553, p < .001, B = .461, β = .283), and the null hypothesis was rejected. Conclusion: Students who attribute outcomes to forces beyond their control are more uncertain about why they succeed or fail, although control beliefs explain only a modest share of that uncertainty. Guidance programs should combine attribution retraining with specific, timely feedback that makes the causes of results visible.

Keywords: locus of control; attributional ambiguity; academic achievement; secondary school students; Attribution Theory; Kenya