Mastery Motivation and Cognitive Development: A Longitudinal Study from Infancy to 34 Years of Age

Abstract

Thirty-five children who had participated in an intensive study of mastery motivation at 1 year of age were reevaluated at 32 years. At each age, the children's level of mastery motivation and cognitive functioning were assessed with both global and differentiated measures. Several structured tasks were developed to assess mastery motivation. In addition to the assessments at 1 year and 32 years, Bayley scores from 6 months of age were available for nearly half the children. The findings differed for boys and girls. For boys, some continuity was found in mastery motivation between 1 and 32 years; for girls, no continuity in mastery motivation was found but early mastery motivation predicted later cognitive functioning. Early vocalization (at both 6 and 12 months) was significantly related to later verbal abilities for boys. These findings indicate that developmental continuities can be found in the early years of life but only when a wide range of behaviors in the cognitive-motivational domain is examined.

Longitudinal relations of maternal supportiveness and child task-approach behavior to early cognitive development of children with developmental risks

“…Maslin-Cole et al (1995) also found moderate stability in mastery motivation. Previous studies have found statistically significant concurrent relations between children's mastery motivation and cognition (Jennings, et al, 1984;Niccols, et al, 2003;Turner & Johnson, 2003). However, relations between earlier mastery motivation and later cognition are not consistent.…”

“…Jennings et al (1984) found that the positive relation between infants' mastery motivation and cognition at three years old held only for girls even though it was one dimension of the mastery motivation scale, whereas Messer et al (1986) found that early mastery motivation was negatively related to children's later cognition.…”

“…There is a need for more investigation of these longitudinal relations. Other researchers have identified gender effects on relations between mastery motivation and cognition (Hauser-Cram, et al, 2001;Jennings et al, 1984;Messer, et al, 1986). However, this study did not examine gender differences in this phenomenon since the (1999) found that earlier child irritability predicted later parental interaction, but Crockenberg and McCluskey (1986) and Owens, et al (1998) have not found any transactional relations between these two variables.…”

“…Like Jennings et al (1984), Messer et al (1986) months, whereas mastery motivation in infancy (e.g., time spent investigating toys at six months and persistence in solving tasks at 12 months) was related to cognition at 30 months.…”

“…Jennings, Yarrow, and Martin (1984) developed measures of mastery motivation that consist of three dimensions: producing effects, practicing skills, and persistence at solving difficult problems at 1 year of age, and curiosity, task orientation, and persistence at difficult tasks at three and half years of age. Messer et al (1986) Vlachou and Farrell (2000) measured dimensions of object mastery motivation: task pleasure, task persistence, success, and off-task behavior.…”