It Takes Two: Process Praise Linking Trying and Success Is Associated With Greater Infant Persistence.

Process praise (i.e., praise for effort) facilitates childhood persistence. However, less is known about the mechanism by which process praise influences persistence in infancy. Here, we propose that well-timed process praise reinforces the link between effort and success, thus promoting persistence...

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Published in:Developmental Psychology Vol. 59; no. 9; pp. 1668 - 1676
Main Authors: Radovanovic, Mia, Soldovieri, Antonia, Sommerville, Jessica A.
Format: Article
Published: American Psychological Association Sep2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Sep2023
      vid: 59
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      pub: American Psychological Association
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        10.1037/dev0001584
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        atl: It Takes Two: Process Praise Linking Trying and Success Is Associated With Greater Infant Persistence.
      aug:
        au:
          Radovanovic, Mia
          Soldovieri, Antonia
          Sommerville, Jessica A.
        affil:
          Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
          Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia
      su:
        United States
        Canada
        Caregivers
        Psychology
        Task performance
        Child psychology
        White people
        Success
        Children
        Theory
        Research funding
        Praise
      sug:
        subj:
          Caregivers
          Psychology
          Task performance
          Child psychology
          White people
          Success
          Children
          United States
          Canada
          Theory
          Research funding
          Praise
      keyword:
        caregiver input
        infancy
        persistence
        process praise
        timing
        caregiver input
        infancy
        persistence
        process praise
        timing
      ab: Process praise (i.e., praise for effort) facilitates childhood persistence. However, less is known about the mechanism by which process praise influences persistence in infancy. Here, we propose that well-timed process praise reinforces the link between effort and success, thus promoting persistence in young children. In Experiment 1, U.S. infants aged 17–18 months old (N = 29; 13 females; M = 18 months, 3 days; 76% White) and in Experiment 2, Canadian toddlers aged 17–31 months old (N = 60; 34 females; M = 22 months, 17 days; 40% White) participated with caregivers. Across experiments, caregiver process and general praise overlapping temporally with both trying and success related to greater persistence during a dyadic task, while praise offered only during trying or success was not. However, the effects of temporally aligned process praise were more robust than the effects of general praise. Furthermore, process praise which did not correspond to children's actions (i.e., high-volume or randomly dispersed process praise) negatively related to persistence. Thus, these findings demonstrate that young children are responsive to temporal alignment in praise and further suggest that temporal alignment especially in process praise may help form the basis for later mindset models. Public Significance Statement: The way caregivers talk to children helps them persist more on challenging problems. Here, we saw that when caregivers timed their praise to highlight moments when their infants' trying turned into success, infants kept trying for longer both in the laboratory and in their own homes. This timing might help infants begin to develop a positive mindset toward persistence which will be increasingly important as they grow.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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