Effects of Mother Presence and Absence on LD Children's and Their Mothers' Causal Attributions for Performance Outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether mother presence and absence have a differential effect on children's and mothers' attributional responses for performance outcomes. It was hypothesized that children whose mothers were present to observe them perform a task would rate their effort and ability higher under success and lower under failure conditions. It also was expected that mothers' attributional ratings would follow a similar pattern for ability and effort attributions as well as ratings of their children's future performance. Forty male children in grades 3 and 4 and their mothers participated in the investigation. The data indicated a significant performance-(success and failure)-by-maternal-involvement (presence and absence) interaction for children's attributional ratings of effort, task difficulty, and luck and for mothers' attributional ratings of their children's effort, task difficulty, and future performance.