A study examined the relationship of personal control-of-learning beliefs (learning locus of control) and three separate components of self-directed learning: cognitive strategy use, metacognitive self-regulation, and resource management. Subjects were 88 undergraduate and 2 graduate students from 3 institutions of higher education in Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania. Participants completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire that included separate scales for each variable examined. Findings suggested that cognitive strategy use was related to personal control-of-learning beliefs, and this relationship remained constant across three age groups, ranging from 17-49. Metacognitive strategy use was not related to personal control-of-learning beliefs, and this relationship also remained constant. Resource management was significantly related to personal control-of-learning beliefs. This relationship became significantly stronger from the 17- to 20-year-old range to the 21- to 25-year-old range, but not significantly so. The relationship then became less strong between the second group and the 26- to 49-year-old range, but not significantly so. The findings suggested that learning locus of control was related to two dimensions of self-directed learning, but age differences were found only for the resource management dimension. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/YLB)