RELATIONSHIPS OF LOCUS OF CONTROL TO SELF‐ESTEEM, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, AND PREDICTION OF PERFORMANCE AMONG NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS

S ummary . The purpose of this study was: ( a ) to investigate the effects of socioeconomic background, locus of control, intelligence, and self‐esteem on academic achievement of Nigerian secondary school pupils; ( b ) and to examine the relationships of locus of control to socio‐economic background, intelligence, self‐esteem, academic achievement and prediction of academic performance. Eighty secondary school boys completed the Socio‐economic Background Questionnaire, the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, the Brookover Scale of Self‐Concept of Academic Ability, and provided estimates of prediction of their own academic performance. The analyses of data revealed that: ( a ) all the four independent variables (socio‐economic background, locus of control, intelligence, self‐esteem) had significant positive effects on academic achievement; ( b ) internality significantly positively correlated with intelligence, self‐esteem and academic achievement; ( c ) the internals were significantly more accurate predictors of their own academic performance than the externals.