Influence of Age, Gender, and Perceived Self-Control on Future Goals of Children in Adversities Matthew O. Olasupo 1,2 & Erhabor S. Idemudia 1 Accepted: 17 December 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract The study investigated the influence of age, gender, and perceived self- control on future goals of children with adversities situated in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Using a cross-sectional research design, 100 out-of-school children were conveniently select- ed from the streets, workshops, and stores after due consent to participate in the study. The mean age of participants was 14.3 (SD = .72) with age ranging from 8 to 16 years. The independent variables were age, gender and perceived self-control. The outcome variable was future goals measured with Snyder et al. J Pediatr Psychol, 22(3), 399– 421, (1997) children hope scale. Results showed that there is a significant difference between pre-adolescents and adolescents in their orientation towards future goals {F(1, 93) = 23.65, p < 0.05}. Results further showed that male and female participants did not differ significantly in their orientation towards future goals {F(1, 93) = 0.54, p > 0.05}. Also, it was revealed that children that were low in perceived self-control did not differ from those that are high in perceived self-control {F(1, 93) = 2.56, p > 0.05}. As a conclusion, we observed that the independent variables interacted together to influence the future goal of children in adversities and recommendations were made based on the findings of the study. Keywords Adolescents . Adversity . Age . Children . Gender . Pre-adolescents . Nigeria 1 Introduction The current socio-economic condition in Nigeria has continued to place more children in adverse developmental conditions (Beegle et al. 2016). According to Abdullahi et al. Child Ind Res DOI 10.1007/s12187-016-9439-2 * Matthew O. Olasupo gbenga.olasupo@yahoo.com 1 School of Research & Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Human & Social Sciences, North-West University (Mafikeng Campus), Mmabatho, South Africa 2 Department of Psychology, Obafemi Awolowo University , Ile-Ife, Nigeria