It takes two: Process praise linking trying and success is associated with greater infant persistence

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Child Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Process praise, focusing on effort, is known to enhance childhood persistence.
• The specific mechanisms through which process praise influences persistence in infancy remain less understood.
• Understanding early influences on persistence is crucial for developing foundational mindset models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mechanism by which well-timed process praise influences persistence in infants and toddlers.
• To examine the role of temporal alignment between praise, effort, and success in promoting persistence.
• To compare the effects of process praise versus general praise on persistence in young children.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments involving U.S. and Canadian infants and toddlers (17-31 months old) and their caregivers.
• Caregivers provided process praise and general praise during a dyadic task.
• Praise timing relative to children's trying and success was systematically varied and analyzed.

Main Results:

• Process and general praise temporally aligned with both trying and success significantly increased persistence.
• Temporally aligned process praise demonstrated more robust effects on persistence than general praise.
• Misaligned process praise (e.g., high-volume, random) negatively impacted persistence.

Conclusions:

• Young children are highly responsive to the temporal alignment of praise.
• Temporally aligned process praise may establish the groundwork for developing growth mindset models in later childhood.
• The findings highlight the importance of specific praise delivery for fostering early persistence.