title: Individualized behavioral assessments and maternal ratings of mastery motivation in mental age-matched toddlers with and without motor delay.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mastery motivation is a precursor of future developmental outcomes. Evidence about whether toddlers with motor delay have lower mastery motivation is inconclusive.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to examine differences between mental age-matched toddlers with and without motor delay on various mastery motivation indicators.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mental age- and sex-matched case-control study was performed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two children with motor delay, aged 23 to 47 months, and 22 children who were developing typically, aged 15 to 29 months, were recruited. Persistence and mastery pleasure were measured with behavioral tasks that were moderately challenging for each child and with maternal ratings using the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ). The DMQ was rated by each child's mother based on her perception of her child's motivation. Two types of structured tasks (a puzzle and a cause-effect toy selected to be moderately challenging for each child) were administered in a laboratory setting and recorded on videos. Paired t tests or Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to examine group differences in persistence and mastery pleasure (α=.007, 2-tailed).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children with motor delay were rated lower on DMQ persistence than the typically developing group, but they did not show significantly lower persistence on the structured tasks. There were no significant differences in mastery pleasure between the 2 groups on either measure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Large within-sample variability on the tasks and small sample size makes subgroup analysis (eg, different severities) difficult.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Toddlers with motor delay did not show lower persistence and pleasure when given tasks that were moderately challenging; however, their mothers tended to view them as having lower motivation. Clinicians and parents should provide appropriately challenging tasks to increase children's success and motivation.
authors.affiliation: School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pei-Jung
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Ai-Wen
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Hua-Fang
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Liao
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009042:Motivation; D009048:Motor Skills; D057181:Pleasure; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis