The development and prediction of young children’s mastery motivation

• In Event: Understanding the origins, determinants, and consequences of children’s mastery motivation: A developmental approach

Abstract

Young children’s mastery motivation (MM), which is defined as the psychological force of seeking out novelty and mastering challenging skills or tasks, is a key predictor for later academic achievement and psychological well-being [1]. Children’s MM is stable over time from toddlerhood to preschool and elementary school age [2]. However, studies that investigate the development of young children’s MM longitudinally are surprisingly scarce. The first aim of current paper is to investigate the development of MM across four assessments (each one year apart) from 18 to 54 months. Furthermore, supportive parental behaviors, that is, high parental warmth and low assertive control, promote young children’s MM in solving challenging tasks through enhancing children’s feelings of autonomy and competence [3,4]. Therefore, the second aim of current study is to investigate how maternal warmth and physical assertive control shapes the developmental trajectory.
The sample was 251 children (140 boys) and their mothers who were part of a longitudinal project of toddlers’ emotional development. Children’s MM was observed in a joint challenging task (i.e., mothers and children doing challenging puzzles together) from 18 (T1), 30 (T2), 42 (T3), and 54 (T4) months. Maternal warmth and assertive physical control were observed in two tasks at T1: the challenging puzzle task and a clean-up task.
To understand change over time in children’s MM, we computed three unconditional latent curve models: a linear, a quadratic, and a latent basis model. Comparing the model fit indices, we found that the latent basis model best described the growth, indicating that the speed of increases varies among the developmental periods. Children started at low levels of MM at T1 (α = 2.37, p < 0.001); and the overall increase between T1 and T4 (β) was 2.20 (p < 0.001). The time scoring indicated that the changes (increases) of children’s MM between T1 and T2 accounted for 25% of the total change. There was very little change between T2 to T3, with time scoring indicating that this period accounted for 2% of the total change. The steepest change (increase) was between T3 and T4, with time scoring indicating that this period accounted for 73% of the total change.
To understand predictors of T1 and the slope of children’s MM, conditioned latent basis models showed that mothers’ high levels of warmth and low levels of assertive physical control in the challenging teaching tasks were related to relatively high levels of T1 children’s MM, but relatively slow increases from T1 to T4 (Figure 1). For the more social task (clean up), maternal assertive physical control was negatively related T1 MM (β = -0.09, p = 0.04) but the maternal behaviors during clean up did not predict the slope (Figure 2).
In conclusion, young children’s MM increased from 18 to 54 months, with the largest growth between 42 to 54 months. Maternal assertive physical control was found to hinder children’s MM in early toddlerhood across different contexts. Results are discussed in terms of the mothers’ role in supporting children’s MM in early development.

Authors

• Wen Wang, North Dakota State University
  Presenting Author

• Tracy L Spinrad, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy Eisenberg, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author