Background: Previous research showed inconsistent results on the effect of parenting on the mastery motivation of children. Little research has been done on the influence of child’s autism...Show moreBackground: Previous research showed inconsistent results on the effect of parenting on the mastery motivation of children. Little research has been done on the influence of child’s autism characteristics to the mastery motivation of children. Aim: The current study investigated whether positive parenting, negative parenting and autism characteristics were related to the instrumental and expressive mastery motivation. Method: In this study 48 mothers and children participated. The children (6 girls), were around 4 years of age (SD = 0.95). The instrumental and expressive mastery motivation were measured by the Dimensions Mastery Questionnaire. Parenting was measured by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire and autism characteristics by the Social Responsiveness Scale for children. Results: Autism characteristics of the child were negatively related to instrumental mastery motivation. Specifically, less social motivation predicted less instrumental mastery motivation of children. Positive parenting and negative parenting were not related to instrumental mastery motivation. In addition, there were no relationships found between positive parenting, negative parenting, child’s autism characteristics and expressive mastery motivation of the child. Discussion: These results contribute to the growing knowledge of the relationship between parenting, autism characteristics and mastery motivation. Further research should focus on the relationship between autism characteristics and social, motor, cognitive and expressive mastery motivation measured physiological and by observation. The development of interventions to increase social motivation in children with autism characteristics is also key because it can benefit the instrumental mastery motivation.Show less
