Thirty-five children who had participated in an intensive study of mastery motivation
at 1 year of age were reevaluated at 32 years. At each age, the children's level of
mastery motivation and cognitive functioning were assessed with both global and
differentiated measures. Several structured tasks were developed to assess mastery
motivation. In addition to the assessments at 1 year and 32 years, Bayley scores
from 6 months of age were available for nearly half the children. The findings
differed for boys and girls. For boys, some continuity was found in mastery
motivation between 1 and 32 years; for girls, no continuity in mastery motivation
was found but early mastery motivation predicted later cognitive functioning. Early
vocalization (at both 6 and 12 months) was significantly related to later verbal
abilities for boys. These findings indicate that developmental continuities can be
found in the early years of life but only when a wide range of behaviors in the
cognitive-motivational domain is examined.
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