Age and Cultural Differences in Self-Perceptions of Mastery Motivation and Competence in American, Chinese, and Hungarian School Age Children

Table 1

Principal axis factor analysis of the combined American, Chinese, and Hungarian samples on the four persistence scales and mastery pleasure.

Scales and items	Gross motor persist.	Cognitive persist.	Mastery pleasure	Social persist. adults	Social persist. peers
Gross motor persistence
Likes sports and tries to do well	.706
Repeats sports skills to do well	.704
Tries to do well at athletics	.696
Tries to get better at catching	.564
Tries hard to throw well	.549
Tries hard to do well in physical activities	.535
Repeats motor skills to do well	.530
Cognitive persistence
Works long time to solve school problems		.620
Works a long time to do something hard		.590
Works on a problem until does it well		.535
Tries to complete school work		.512
Explores all ways to solve a problem		.489
Likes to try hard problems		.468
Tries to finish puzzles even if hard		<.30
Mastery pleasure
Is pleased when solving a hard problem			.671
Gets excited when figuring something out			.601
Gets excited when succeeding			.588
Smiles after finishing something			.509
Smiles when making something happen			.534
Social persistence with adults
Enjoys talking with adults				.625
Tries to interest adults in doing activities				.600
Enjoys discussing things with adults				.543
Likes to play with adults				.541
Tries to get adults to understand things				.487
Social persistence with peers
Tries to make friends with other kids					.568
Tries to get included in play with kids					.545
Likes to talk to other kids					.523
Tries to keep play with kids going					.430
Gets involved in pretend play with friends					.329

Note. Principal axis factoring with varimax rotation. Eigenvalues = 7.87, 2.20, 1.68, 1.62, and 1.22. These five factors account for 38.71% of the variance. Loadings less than .30 are not specified. The actual items were shortened to fit in the table.