Maternal relationships and motivation in gifted children

Abstract

This study primarily investigates gifted children's and their mothers' acceptance-rejection and control perceptions and children's achievement motivation. The study was carried out with 5th and 6th year students attending Science and Art Centers in two cities in Turkey, and their mothers. The sample of this research is 226 students (103 girls and 126 boys) and 179 mothers. As data collection tools, Turkish Parent Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire/Control: Child (Short Form), Child Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire/Control: Mother (Short Form), and Scale of Motivation in Education were used. The results of the study showed that children and mothers perceived high level acceptance, low level rejection and mid-level control in their mother-child relationships. A significant difference was observed between mothers' and children's perceived parental acceptance-rejection and control. It was also seen that children's identified external motivation and intrinsic motivation levels were high and amotivation and introjected external motivation levels were low.

Keywords

• Gifted child
• mother-child relationship
• acceptance-rejection
• motivation

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