Study Notes on Parenting Praise and Motivational Frameworks

Introduction

Study Focus: The impact of parental praise on children's motivational frameworks from ages 1-3 and its predictive value at ages 7-8.
Authors: Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Sarah J. Gripshover, Carissa Romero, Carol S. Dweck, Susan Goldin-Meadow, and Susan C. Levine.
Key Findings:
- Incremental frameworks developed from praise for effort.
- Fixed-ability frameworks associated with praise for inherent characteristics.
- Involvement of parental influence in shaping children's beliefs about skills and abilities.

Incremental Theory: The belief that abilities can develop through dedication and hard work.
Entity Theory: The belief that abilities are fixed and unchangeable.
Motivational Frameworks: Comprises beliefs, attributions, attitudes, and behaviors derived from either incremental or entity theories.

Experiment Basis: Previous laboratory studies demonstrate that process praise (e.g., praising effort) leads to incremental theories, while person praise (e.g., praising intelligence) leads to entity theories.
Gap in Research: Lack of studies on spontaneous parental praise effects in home settings.

Definition of Praise: Acknowledgment of a child's effort, traits, or performance by parents that can influence children’s beliefs and self-concept.
Types of Praise:
1. Process Praise: Highlights effort (e.g., "You worked hard!").
2. Person Praise: Focuses on traits (e.g., "You are so smart!").
3. Other Praise: General acknowledgments not specified as process or person.

Objectives:
1. Characterize the types of praise parents give.
2. Analyze the impact of parental praise on children's motivational frameworks after 5 years.
Age of Focus: Parents studied when children were 14 to 38 months.

Sample Size: 53 children and their primary caregivers from the Chicago area.
Demographic Diversity: Sample reflects various income levels and ethnic backgrounds.
SES Measurement: Based on family income and parents’ education level (e.g., M = 15.9 years of education).

Data Collection: Home visits every 4 months to observe interactions.
Analysis: Praise identified through video-transcribed interactions, categorized based on defined praise types.

Process Praise Examples: "Good job trying!" or "I like how you did that!"
Person Praise Examples: "Good girl!" or "You’re so smart!"
Other Praise Examples: General affirmations such as "Nice!" or "Good job!"
Percentage/Frequency Analysis: Total praise as a percentage of all parental utterances to gauge trends.

Overall average of praise accounted for 3.0% of total utterances across observations.
- Process Praise: 18.0% of all praise utterances.
- Person Praise: 16.0% of all praise utterances.
- Other Praise: 66.0% of praise, consisting mostly of general affirmations.

Stability in praise types was observed over the 14-38 months age range, suggesting consistency in parent praise style.
Variations in praise styles were analyzed for differences based on gender and parent characteristics.

Boys received significantly more process praise than girls.
Motivational Frameworks: Boys reported a greater incremental framework regarding intelligence than girls.

Process Praise positively correlated with incremental frameworks at ages 7-8 (r(51) = .35, p = .01).
Person Praise had no significant correlation with motivational frameworks (r(51) = -0.05, p = .73).
Regression analyses confirmed process praise as a robust predictor.

The Role of Parental Praise: Influences future children’s motivation and framing of intelligence as malleable or fixed.
Educational Interventions: Importance of focusing on how praise is given to instill adaptive motivational frameworks.
Future Research Directions: Investigate the types of praise provided by other caregivers (teachers, peers) and their impact on children.

Sample size of 53 may limit generalizability.
Observational effects may influence parental behavior due to awareness of being studied.
Potential confounding variables not controlled for could influence results.