Abstract

The present study examined mothers’ responses to their preschool-aged children’s successful and unsuccessful actions during a semi-structured puzzle task. Associations between mothers’ responses and the familial context were examined. In addition, children’s cognitive and academic abilities were assessed at two subsequent time points, in relation to the parenting behaviors they were exposed to at the preschool age. Participants were drawn from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a longitudinal and intergenerational study of families from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Montréal, Québec. At Time 1, participants were 156 mothers and their preschool-aged children (1-6 years). At Times 2 and 3, 124 and 98 of these mother-child dyads participated when the children were aged six to 11 years, and nine to 13 years, respectively. Maternal responses to their children’s successful actions were divided into three categories: process-focused praise, person-focused praise, and neutral acknowledgments. Responses to children’s unsuccessful actions were divided into four categories: encouragement or helping, discouragement, neutral indications of mistake, or taking over.

Results revealed that mothers’ responses were associated with the quality of their home environment, child characteristics, as well as maternal characteristics, including their histories of childhood aggression and social withdrawal. Furthermore, a lower frequency of mothers’ taking over, as well as higher frequencies of encouragement or helping and neutral indications of mistakes, were associated with greater child cognitive and academic outcomes at subsequent time points. These results have implications for the development of parenting interventions that could promote adaptive responding to children’s success and struggle in academic and associated learning contexts.