Work Volition Among U.S. Veterans: Locus of Control as a Mediator

The present study examined correlates of work volition—the perceived capacity to make occupational choices despite constraints—with a diverse sample of 213 U.S. veterans. Veterans with higher levels of formal education, higher yearly incomes, were married, and were employed, endorsed greater work volition. Those who experienced lower posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, endorsed lower levels of neuroticism, higher levels of conscientiousness, and higher levels of internal locus of control, also demonstrated greater levels of work volition. A structural model was run where PTSD symptoms, neuroticism, and conscientiousness were hypothesized to predict work volition via locus of control and compared with an alternative model. After identifying a best fitting model, bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that locus of control fully mediated the relations between PTSD symptoms, neuroticism, and conscientiousness to work volition. Specifically, the key reason PTSD symptoms, neuroticism, and conscientiousness were related to work volition was their effect on general locus of control. Practical implications are discussed.