No abstract

20 boys, designated as either normal or screened for emotional problems, predicted size of their mother's and father's rewards for their performance on WISC Block Designs (two items with success and two failure) and on two story-telling tasks. Mother and father each predicted success or failure for each design prior to the child's performance and rewarded their son's performance on each design and story item. The results indicated that: (a) over all tasks mothers and fathers did not differ in terms of the magnitude of their rewards; (b) normal and screened boys did not differ in terms of their expectation of parental rewards; (c) however, the mothers of screened boys gave lower rewards on failure ( p < .04) and story ( p < .01) tasks than did mothers of normal boys. Possible reasons for the mothers of the boys showing preclinical behavior problems being less rewarding are discussed in terms of mother ⇌ son bidirectional interaction.

20 boys and girls, ages 7 to 9 yr., predicted size of mother's and father's rewards for their performance on WISC Block Design (two success and two failure items). Mother and father both predicted success or failure for each design prior to the child's performance and rewarded their child's performance on each design. Predictions based on previous studies concerning (a) children's perceptions of mother as more nurturant and father as more punishing and (b) boys as having a less favorable perception of parents than girls were not supported. While children did underestimate parents' rewards ( p < .05), they correctly perceived parents as equally rewarding and appropriately decreased their expectancies in light of failure ( p < .001).