The Determinants of Maternal Behaviors in Infant Problem-Solving Context
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chen, Yi-Chieh
Abstract
Recent research has suggested that mastery motivation is an important developmental precursor for later motivational orientation. As children entering the second half of their first year, they start to show goal-directed behaviors, which may be influenced by their interactive experience with the main caregivers. To investigate the determinants of maternal behaviors while facing infant’s mastery endeavor, this study measured maternal implicit theory of competence, maternal perception of infant temperament (including three dimensions of Negative Affectivity, Surgency/Extraversion, & Orienting/Regulating), and maternal pragmatic concept of effort. Moreover, a new taxonomical coding system was developed to capture the parenting patterns that are bound with the cultural-specific philosophy in culturally Chinese societies. Fifty-three mothers and their 9.5-month-old infants completed three 3-minute problem-solving sessions. Maternal behaviors manifested in these sessions were coded into five behavioral dimensions (Power Assertion, Goal-Oriented Involvement, Child-Centered, Positive Affect, and Demonstration) by time-sampling method. Hierarchical regression analyses, including infant gender and maternal educational level in the first step, demonstrated the following results. (1) Maternal display of Power Assertion was predicted by infant gender, maternal educational level, and maternal perception of infant Negative Affectivity. (2) Maternal Child-Centered behavior was predicted by their perception of infant Orienting/ Regulating. (3) Maternal expression of Positive Affect was predicted by their perception of infant Orienting/ Regulating and marginally predicted by their implicit theory of competence. (4) Maternal exertion of Demonstration was predicted by infant gender and maternal perception of infant Orienting/Regulating. Further, maternal perception of infant Orienting/ Regulating also moderated the effect of maternal implicit theory of competence on their use of Demonstration. (5) Maternal pragmatic concept of effort moderated the relation between maternal implicit theory of competence and perception of infant temperament (including Surgency/Extraversion & Orienting/ Regulating) on their Goal-Oriented Involvement. With the new taxonomical coding system, this study demonstrated the unique contribution of the pragmatic concept of effort, an ideology often emphasized in the Chinese culture, to maternal behaviors.
Subjects
implicit theory of competence
pragmatic concept of effort
temperament
infancy
maternal behaviors, Chinese
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