The child-rearing environment and children's mastery motivation as contributors to school readiness

In this study, mastery motivation was examined as a mediator of the relation between preschoolers' home environment—harsh, coercive rearing practices as well as cognitive stimulation—and a later indicator of school readiness. Findings from an ethnically diverse sample of Head Start families (N = 207) showed parent coercion, encouragement of learning, and parent-rated mastery motivation to predict school readiness a year later. Although parent-rated mastery motivation at pretest explained unique variance in later school readiness, tests of mediation were not supported. Notably, model testing found that observed mastery motivation task scores were unrelated to parent-rated mastery motivation or school readiness. These insights are informative for reconceptualizing how mastery motivation is assessed, as well as current thinking about how targeting preschoolers' mastery motivation may help parents and early childhood educators to better prepare low-income preschoolers for early school success.