Childhood depression, family income, and locus of control.

Family income and the response style of internal-external locus of control were studied for their relationship to childhood depression. The subjects were 944 prepubertal school children representing three levels of socioeconomic status. Depression was measured by three methods: peer nominations, self-rating, and teacher ratings. Externality was associated with high depression and internality with low depression. The joint effects of low family income and externality produced the highest depression scores. Income and externality were inversely related.