Editing Locus of control (section)

== Stress ==
The previous section showed how self-efficacy can be related to a person's locus of control, and [[Psychological stress|stress]] also has a relationship in these areas. Self-efficacy can be something that people use to deal with the stress that they are faced within their everyday lives. Some findings suggest that higher levels of external locus of control combined with lower levels self-efficacy are related to higher illness-related psychological distress.<ref name="JL reff 5"/> People who report a more external locus of control also report more concurrent and future stressful experiences and higher levels of psychological and physical problems.<ref name="LOCpsy"/> These people are also more vulnerable to external influences and as a result, they become more responsive to stress.<ref name="JL reff 5" />

Veterans of the military forces who have spinal cord injuries and post-traumatic stress are a good group to look at in regard to locus of control and stress. Aging shows to be a very important factor that can be related to the severity of the symptoms of [[Posttraumatic stress disorder|PTSD]] experienced by patients following the trauma of war.<ref name="JL reff 4">{{cite journal |doi=10.1521/psyc.2006.69.1.69 |pmid=16704333 |title=Spinal Cord Injury, Posttraumatic Stress, and Locus of Control Among the Elderly: A Comparison with Young and Middle–Aged Patients |journal=Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=69–80 |year=2006 |last1=Chung |first1=Man Cheung |last2=Preveza |first2=Eleni |last3=Papandreou |first3=Konstantinos |last4=Prevezas |first4=Nikolaos |s2cid=1821989 }}</ref> Research suggests that patients with a spinal cord injury benefit from knowing that they have control over their health problems and their disability, which reflects the characteristics of having an internal locus of control.

A study by Chung et al. (2006) focused on how the responses of spinal cord injury post-traumatic stress varied depending on age. The researchers tested different age groups including young adults, middle-aged, and elderly; the average age was 25, 48, and 65 for each group respectively. After the study, they concluded that age does not make a difference on how spinal cord injury patients respond to the traumatic events that happened.<ref name="JL reff 4" /> However, they did mention that age did play a role in the extent to which the external locus of control was used, and concluded that the young adult group demonstrated more external locus of control characteristics than the other age groups to which they were being compared.