The proposed research focuses on the emergence of patterns of mastery motivation in typical, albeit challenging, learning situations in three groups of ethnically diverse children, aged 5: Euro-Americans, African- Americans, and Latinos. It will also examine specific ecological variables (e. g., psychosocial dimensions of parenting behaviors) likely to affect how children approach new mastery-oriented challenges, and respond to difficult learning situations. Thus, the proposed research will provide multi-dimensional, multi-method data on the development of adaptive and maladaptive patterns of motivation and self-evaluation (e. g., competence, autonomy, pride, shame) within culturally-anchored contexts. In this study, children will participate with their parent(s) and an experimenter in a variety of activities that pose problems to be explored or solved. Behavioral and emotional indices of children's mastery motivation and related self-evaluations will be scored from videotapes of these interactions; and, children's self-evaluations will be assessed using age-appropriate self-reports. In addition, relevant aspects of parent behaviors, vocalizations, and affective expressions will be coded. By assuming an ecological perspective, and investigating multiple pathways of development, the proposed research will provide information about the development of adaptive and maladaptive patterns of motivation and self- evaluation as children enter elementary school. In turn, this data will provide a meaningful knowledge base from which to later investigate (a) continuities in development (i.e., are children who show motivational vulnerabilities at age 5 the same ones who show them later in elementary school?), and (b) factors that might contribute to diverse developmental pathways of school-aged children's motivation to learn.
