title: Low control beliefs in relation to school dropout and poor health: findings from the SIODO case-control study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is cumulating evidence that health is compromised through adverse socioeconomic conditions negatively affecting how people think, feel, and behave. Low control beliefs might be a key mechanism. The reversed possibility that low control beliefs might set people on a pathway towards adverse socioeconomic and health-related outcomes is much less examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control design was used, consisting of 330 cases who dropped out of school in the 2010-2011 school year and 330 controls who still attended school at the end of that year. The respondents, aged between 18 and 23, came from Eindhoven and surrounding areas in the south-east of The Netherlands. A questionnaire asked for current health status, recalled socioeconomic and social background, and recalled control beliefs (mastery and general self-efficacy). Logistic regression analyses were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Recalls of low mastery and low self-efficacy were strongly related to both dropout and less than good health. Low socioeconomic background was also associated to odds of dropout, but did not confound or moderate the associations of low control beliefs with dropout and health. Odds ratios of dropout and less than good health indicated at least twice the odds of a poor outcome with recalls of low control beliefs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Independent of the socioeconomic background, low control beliefs are related to heightened odds of both poor health and school dropout. Individual differences in control beliefs might thus be as fundamental as socioeconomic conditions in generating life-course socioeconomic and health-related pathways. Although the findings should first be cross-validated in prospective studies, public health professionals working with youth might already start considering early interventions in youth with all too fatalistic and powerless mind-sets.
authors.affiliation: Maastricht University, Social Medicine, CAPHRI, P,O, Box 616, 6200, MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. hans.bosma@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bosma
authors.forename: Marie-José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Theunissen
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verdonk
authors.forename: Frans
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Feron
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011634:Public Health; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult