A model of mastery motivation for at-risk preschoolers.

The authors empirically tested a theoretical model of mastery motivation with 169 4-year-old African American at-risk children and their parents. The authors hypothesized that (a) parent characteristics (exogenous variables of education, income, and global self-efficacy) would predict parenting beliefs and parent-child relationships, (b) parenting beliefs and parent-child relationships would predict children's mastery, and (c) children's mastery would predict academic gains from pretest to posttest. The results showed that parents' education predicted parenting beliefs, parents' global self-efficacy predicted parenting beliefs and parent-child relationships, parenting beliefs predicted parent-child relationships, parent-child relationships predicted children's mastery, and children's mastery predicted children's performance on achievement tests controlling for pretest differences. This research provides support for the contention that motivational patterns develop early as a function of family variables and have the potential to influence academic success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)