Mastery motivation and self-evaluative affect in toddlers: Longitudinal relations with maternal behavior

This study examined relations between maternal control and evaluative feedb ack during the second year of life and children's mastery motivation and ex pressions of self-evaluative affect a year later. Participants were 75 todd lers (35 girls, 40 boys) and their mothers. Maternal controlling behavior a nd evaluative feedback were examined while mothers taught their 24-month ol ds a challenging task. Children's mastery motivation and expressions of sel f-evaluative affect were assessed during easy and difficult achievement-lik e tasks when they were 36 months old. Maternal evaluative feedback and cont rol style at 24 months predicted children's shame, persistence, and avoidan ce of mastery activities at 36 months. Specifically, negative maternal eval uations at age two related to children's later shame, especially when feedb ack was linked to children's actions or products; positive maternal feedbac k overall, as well as corrective feedback, related to children's later pers istence; mothers who engaged in more autonomy-supporting control with their 2-year-olds had children who were less likely to avoid challenging activit ies at age 3. Children's pride at 36 months was not predicted by mothers' b ehavior at 24 months.