Mothers' expectations, attributions and interaction with their sons : an observational study with learning disabled and normally achieving males and their mothers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) mothers' expectations and attributions for their children's success or failure on an academic task and (2) mothers' nonverbal response and verbal intervention patterns while the child worked on the academic task. In addition, the interrelationships of mothers' expectations, attributions and interaction variables were considered. Major questions concerned differences in the research variables between a group of mothers of learning disabled (LD) males and a group of mothers of normally achieving (NA) males. To accomplish the above purpose and answer major questions, mothers of 15 LD males and mothers of 16 NA males, selected on the basis of their sons' grade level and academic standing, were observed working with their sons in their homes. The children were from three suburban elementary schools in grades 2, 3, or 4. The LD and NA groups were compared on the following measures: a level of expectancy measure (0-10); attribution measures (1-6) for four attributions, i.e., ability, effort, luck and task difficulty for success and failure feedback conditions; and observer ratings for the interaction variables, i.e., nonverbal response, evaluation, encouragement, encouragement of nonpersistence, direct teaching, and number of problems correctly solved. Consideration was also given to the interrelationship of the comparison measures in data analysis. Mothers of LD and NA males did not differ in their use of evaluation, encouragement, encouragement of nonpersistence or number of direct teaching interruptions. They did differ significantly in their expectations, in amount of positive nonverbal response they gave, in the percent of time that they spent teaching and in the number of problems correctly solved with mothers' assistance. Mothers of LD males indicated lower expectations, provided less positive nonverbal response, spent a smaller percent of interaction time teaching their sons how to solve problems; and LD males solved fewer of the problems correctly. Mothers of LD males were less likely to attribute success to their sons' ability but were more likely to attribute failure to their sons' lack of ability...