Navigating Development: How Temperament and Mastery Motivation Shape Motor Abilities in Children with and without Global Developmental Delay

Pei-Jung Wang, Chien-Lin Lin, Karen Caplovitz Barrett
Purpose:

Two purposes of this study were: 1) to compare temperament characteristics in children with GDD and TD; 2) to explore the relationship among child temperament, mastery motivation, and developmental abilities in GDD and TD groups.

Methods:

This study design was cross-sectional. We recruited each 26 children with GDD aged 2 to 5 years from central area of hospital and clinics. And then, 26 children with sex and mental age-matched TD were recruited from the kindergarten. The participants were invited to our laboratory in order to assess their developmental abilities using the Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and Toddlers, and their mothers were asked to fill in questionnaires, including the revised Dimension of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ 18) with preschool version to assess mastery motivation (total persistence and mastery pleasure), the Child Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form to obtain three dimensions of child temperament (extraversion, negative affect, effortful control). Paired t-tests were conducted to assess differences between matched groups, and correlations were used to examine associations (p.05, two-tailed).

Results:

We found that young children with GDD showed higher extraversion and lower effortful control than those with TD (t = 2.10 to 4.21, P .05), but no group difference in negative affect. Different relationships between child temperament, mastery motivation and developmental abilities were found in GDD and TD group. For GDD group, we found that child negative affect or extraversion and total persistence positively correlated with motor developmental quotient (DQ) (r=  .44 to .48, P .05). For TD group, only child total persistence positively associated with motor DQ (r= .41, P .05). 

Conclusion(s):

Young children with GDD showed low effortful control and high extraversion of temperament characteristics than children with TD. Different relationships between temperament, mastery motivation and developmental abilities in children with GDD and TD were found in this study.

Implications:

From the perspective of early childhood intervention, early childhood partitioners should identify the strengths and weakness of child temperament and mastery motivation. Then, they should use strength-based intervention strategies to support their learning engagement in daily activities for facilitating child motor abilities.

Funding acknowledgements:
The study was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST-111-2410-H-468-021)and founded by Asia University (ASIA-110-CMUH-20).
Keywords:
mastery motivation
temperament
developmental delay
Primary topic:
Paediatrics
Second topic:
Health promotion and wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institutional Review Board of China Medical University Hospital.
Provide the ethics approval number:
CMUH109-REC1-032
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
No

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