Maternal Influence on the Development of Mastery Motivation in Children with ASD

Background:   Mastery motivation (MM) is a young child's drive to explore, persist with, and have mastery over aspects of his/her physical surroundings (Morgan, Harmon, & Maslin-Cole, 1990).  The importance of MM lies with its association with later competencies (cognitive and adaptive competence). While young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been shown to have impaired levels of various forms of motivation (e.g., motivation to explore, learn, and generate actions aimed at a goal) no published studies have examined factors that relate to this impairment.   Given the functional impairments of children with ASD in dimensions known to be influenced by early MM, it would be beneficial for both clinicians and researchers to determine external factors that may influence MM.  Maternal behaviors represent a group of external factors that may serve this role.  Research regarding maternal influence on children with ASD is a delicate endeavor, due to early research suggesting a causal link between maternal behavior and the symptoms of autism.  While this accusation is now universally unsupported, researchers have remained hesitant to examine the effect mothers may have on their child with ASD.  However, recent empirical studies have begun to examine the beneficial effects that caregivers' behaviors may have for children with ASD (Doussard-Roosevelt et al., 2003).  Among non-ASD children there is evidence that maternal sensitivity and maternal cognitive engagement may be positively related to MM development (Hauser-Cram, 1996; Gaiter et al., 1982).  Further, among children with ASD, maternal cognitive engagement, maternal sensitivity, and low levels of maternal intrusiveness have been shown to be positively related to other areas of development. 

Objectives: This study aims to determine whether maternal cognitive engagement, maternal sensitivity, and maternal intrusiveness are related to the development of MM in children with ASD.

Methods: The study included 80 children, age 18 – 33 months, diagnosed with ASD.  All children met criteria for an ASD based on the ADI and the ADOS, as well as an expert’s clinical impression.  Two measurements of MM were collected, based upon the child’s behavior observed by trained coders (MMO) and parental report (MMP).  Maternal influence was assessed by trained coders viewing a seven-minute play interaction between a mother and her child, during which they were provided with toys and the mother was asked to play with her child as she normally would. The Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scales (Sosinsky, Carter & Marakovitz, 2004) were used to assess Maternal Cognitive Engagement level, Maternal Sensitivity level, and Maternal Intrusiveness level.

Results: Data have been collected and results are pending analyses. Hierarchical regression will be used to examine the direction, strength, and significance of the relationship that exists between maternal characteristics and MM (both MMO and MMP).  It is hypothesized that when controlling for the child's developmental quotient (DQ), symptom level, and age, Maternal Cognitive Engagement and Maternal Sensitivity will be positively related to a child's MM.  Finally, when controlling for DQ, symptom level, and age, Maternal Intrusiveness will have an inverted U-shaped relationship with child's MM.

Conclusions: Conclusions are pending analyses.