CONGRUENCE AND PREDICTIVE POWER OF MOTHERS AND TEACHERS RATINGS OF MASTERY MOTIVATION IN CHILDREN WITH MENTAL-RETARDATION

The congruence between mothers' and teachers' ratings of mastery motiv ation among 3-year-old children with mental retardation was investigat ed. The extent to which maternal and teacher ratings of task persisten ce at entry to preschool are predictive of observed mastery behaviors at age 5 was tested. Results indicate that mothers rated their childre n's task persistence behaviors higher than did teachers. Further, once the child's cognitive level and teacher ratings were controlled for s tatistically, maternal ratings of the child's mastery behaviors were p redictive of the child's task mastery performance 2 years subsequent. Implications for educational planning were discussed.