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Maternal behaviors and child mastery behaviors were examined in 25 children with Down syndrome and 43 typically developing children matched for mental age (24–36 months). During a shared problem-solving task, there were no group differences in maternal directiveness or support for autonomy, and mothers in the two groups used similar verbal strategies when helping their child. There were also no group differences in child mastery behaviors, measured as persistence with two optimally challenging tasks. However, the two groups differed in the relationships of maternal style with child persistence. Children with Down syndrome whose mothers were more supportive of their autonomy in the shared task displayed greater persistence when working independently on a challenging puzzle, while children of highly directive mothers displayed lower levels of persistence. For typically developing children, persistence was unrelated to maternal style, suggesting that mother behaviors may have different causes or consequences in the two groups.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	maternal style, directiveness, support for autonomy, verbal strategies, persistence, Down syndrome
Research Division:	Education
Research Group:	Specialist studies in education
Research Field:	Special education and disability
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Community services
Objective Field:	Ability and disability
UTAS Author:	Cuskelly, M (Professor Monica Cuskelly)
ID Code:	126529
Year Published:	2009
Web of Science® Times Cited:	33
Deposited By:	Education
Deposited On:	2018-06-15
Last Modified:	2018-08-14
Downloads:	69 View Download Statistics