• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.123-143
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• 2014

This research was based on achievement goal theory which categorizes young children's motivation into three types: mastery, the performance-approach, and performance-avoidance motivation. The participants consisted of forty-eight pairs of children aged 3-4 and their mothers. The participants completed two tasks in order to indentify their motivational types. The short form of the Child Behaviour Questionnaire(CBQ-SF), modified scales from Kim and Kim(2001), and the GIPEPS were also employed. The major findings of the research are as follows: First, in terms of the motivational types of the given sample, performance-approach motivation was ranked first followed by mastery motivation. Second, it was found that the temperament of young children was not related with their motivational types. Third, there were some differences in mother-child interaction between groups based on the frequency of feedback, questions, and the percentage of commands. Fourth, the mood of the relationship appeared to be the only factor of maternal interaction quality which related to children's mastery motivation.