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Children's developing understanding of motivation and its implications for self-regulation Lingyan Hu
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Hu, Lingyan, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Education.
- Educational psychology.
- Early childhood education.
- Developmental psychology.
- 0515.
- 0525.
- 0620.
- 0518.
- Local Subjects:
- Education.
- Educational psychology.
- Early childhood education.
- Developmental psychology.
- 0515.
- 0525.
- 0620.
- 0518.
- Genre:
- Academic theses
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (152 pages)
- Contained In:
- Dissertations Abstracts International 87-12B
- Place of Publication:
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2026
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- Children are naturally motivated to explore, engage, and learn, yet they frequently encounter motivational challenges such as resisting temptations and persisting through difficulties. Although prior research has focused on how external factors shape children's motivation, less is known about how children develop the ability to regulate their own motivational states. A key component of this ability is understanding what motivation is and how it can be changed. Given evidence in adults that accurate knowledge about motivation supports effective self-regulation, examining how such knowledge emerges in childhood is critical.This dissertation investigates how children's understanding of motivation and its regulation develops from early to middle childhood. Paper 1 examines how children reason about the role of goals in shaping happiness in situations where immediate preferences conflict with more valued goals. Findings show that children consider goal commitment when attributing happiness and that these judgments are associated with their own choices between immediate satisfaction and long-term benefits.Paper 2 focuses on children's understanding of how motivation can be regulated through cognitive reframing. Results indicate that even young children recognize that thoughts can influence motivation beyond situational features, distinguish motivation regulation from emotion regulation, and show developmental improvements in this understanding.Paper 3 examines children's beliefs about different types of motivation, including intrinsic, identified,and external motivation, in relation to learning outcomes. Children evaluate intrinsic and identified motivation more positively than external motivation, and older children show emerging sensitivity to task-motivation fit, such that intrinsic motivation better supports performance on open-ended tasks than on closed-ended tasks.Together, these findings suggest that a foundational understanding of motivation emerges early and continues to develop across childhood. This work highlights children as active thinkers with emerging knowledge about motivation and provides insight into the developmental origins of motivational self-regulation, with implications for supporting children's learning and persistence
- Notes:
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12, Section: B.
- Advisors: Frye, Douglas A. Committee members: Nakkula, Michael J.; Miele, David B.; Wolf, Sharon
- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2026
- Vendor supplied data
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175
- ISBN:
- 9798247972662
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license
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