Persistence & emotion on 4 approaches to measuring mastery motivation

• In Event: 3-178 - Social, emotional & self-regulatory influences on children’s mastery strivings, from different countries & perspectives

Integrative Statement

Mastery motivation, the psychological “push” to solve problems and meet challenges, is a key influence on self-regulated learning (Bailey, Barnes, Park, Sokolovic, & Jones, 2018; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000) and an important predictor of school achievement (e.g., Józsa & Barrett, 2018; Józsa & Morgan, 2014). Emotional reactions to challenge and focused persistence on challenging tasks are two key aspects of mastery motivation; however, typically only persistence is measured during challenging puzzles or computer games, and sadness and anger are rarely distinguished on adult-reports (Barrett & Morgan 2018; Morgan, et al. 2017). Moreover, the relationship between both emotions and persistence on both child behavioral and parent report assessments of mastery motivation has not yet been studied in American preschoolers. It is important to determine the convergent validity of these two types of assessment and two aspects of mastery motivation.
Additionally, children’s temperament (e.g., high inhibitory/effortful control) and level of participation in activities are associated with persistence (Blair, Morrow & Camp, 1996; Rothbart, & Hwang, 2005; Wang et al., 2016). However, research has not yet addressed the relationship among preschoolers’ emotional and persistence responses to challenge, temperament, and participation.
The goals of this study, therefore, were to examine: (1) the convergent validity of emotional and persistent responses to challenge (mastery motivation/MM) using child-assessed, parent-reported, and observer rated measures; (2) the relationship between preschoolers’ temperament and MM; and (3) the relationship between preschoolers’ MM and participation in daily activity.
Forty-five European-American children aged 36 to 60 months and their parents have participated so far. Children’s emotions and persistence were measured during computerized number and letter search tasks (Barrett, Józsa, & Morgan, 2017) and individualized moderately challenging puzzles (Wang et al., 2016; Wang, Liao, & Morgan, 2017), and their parents completed the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ) (Morgan et al., 2015), Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006),) and the Assessment of Preschool Children’s Participation (APCP; Law, King, Petrenchik, Kertoy, & Anaby, 2012).
Preliminary results support the validity and reliability of the computerized mastery tasks: 1. Both computer-scored and examiner-rated persistence at challenging tasks were significantly correlated across letter and number search tasks (r = .47 and .71, respectively), supporting alternate forms reliability; 2. Persistence at challenging computerized search tasks was positively associated with parent-rated child sadness to difficult tasks on the DMQ (r = .48 and .53 for letter & number search) and examiner-rated negative emotion for letter search (r = .32). Computer-scored persistence also was moderately (r =.35- .55) positively correlated with temperamental soothability, attentional control, approach/positive anticipation, smiling, and sadness. Persistence at challenging puzzle tasks was associated with parent-reported child anger to difficult tasks (r =.37) and lower involvement in physical recreation (r = -.57). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of measuring specific emotional responses to challenge and support the validity and reliability of the computerized assessment. Moderate correlations between MM and temperament suggested that the measures are related but not the same. Additional analyses will be conducted once the full sample has been assessed on all measures.

Authors

• Pei-Jung Wang, Colorado State University
  Presenting Author

• Karen Barrett, Colorado State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela Roybal Lewis, Colorado State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Krisztián Józsa, University of Szeged
  Non-Presenting Author

• George Morgan, Colorado State University
  Non-Presenting Author