Parent praise to 1- to 3-year-olds predicts children's motivational frameworks 5 years later.

ABSTRACT: In laboratory studies, praising children's effort encourages them to adopt incremental motivational frameworks--they believe ability is malleable, attribute success to hard work, enjoy challenges, and generate strategies for improvement. In contrast, praising children's inherent abilities encourages them to adopt fixed-ability frameworks. Does the praise parents spontaneously give children at home show the same effects? Although parents' early praise of inherent characteristics was not associated with children's later fixed-ability frameworks, parents' praise of children's effort at 14-38 months (N = 53) did predict incremental frameworks at 7-8 years, suggesting that causal mechanisms identified in experimental work may be operating in home environments.

SUBMITTER: Gunderson EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3655123 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature