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

Table 6

Means and comparisons of the three cultures at several common ages on the DMQ scales.

DMQ scales ages	US	China	Hungary			Partial eta^2	Cultural comparisons
Cognitive persistence
Age 11	4.02	3.89	3.68	15.74	<.001	.01	US, CN > HU
Age 16	3.36	3.44	3.25	21.19	<.001	.01	CN, US > HU
Gross motor persistence
Age 11	4.38	3.90	4.08	9.42	<.001	.01	US > HU > CN
Age 16	3.59	3.38	3.47	2.72	.066	.00	—
Social persistence with adults
Age 11	3.67	3.55	3.61	.59	.554	.00	—
Age 16	3.28	2.96	3.27	33.80	<.001	.02	US, HU > CN
Social persistence with peers
Age 11	4.23	3.87	3.96	4.68	.009	.00	US > HU, CN
Age 16	3.40	3.43	3.75	55.46	<.001	.03	HU > CN, US
Total persistence
Age 11	4.07	3.80	3.83	3.95	.019	.00	—
Age 16	3.41	3.30	3.43	12.50	<.001	.01	US, HU > CN
Mastery pleasure
Age 11	4.05	4.02	3.97	5.51	.577	.00	—
Age 16	3.82	4.01	3.98	2.86	.057	.00	—
General competence
Age 11	3.86	3.69	3.28	38.78	<.001	.03	US, CN > HU
Age 16	3.65	3.04	3.21	41.40	<.001	.02	US > HU > CN

Note. At each age, a MANOVA was computed for the four persistence scales and a separate MANOVA was computed for total persistence, mastery pleasure, and competence at 11 and also at 16. If significant, they were followed by univariate ANOVAs and Games-Howell post hoc tests when appropriate.