A strategic mindset enhances children's generation of effective strategies and delay of gratification across tasks.

IF 3.1 2区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL Developmental Psychology Pub Date : 2025-01-20 DOI:10.1037/dev0001916

Patricia Chen, Khai Qing Chua, Hui Yan Lim, Yilin Sharon Hoe, Qiao Kang Teo, Gregory M Walton, Carol S Dweck

{"title":"A strategic mindset enhances children's generation of effective strategies and delay of gratification across tasks.","authors":"Patricia Chen, Khai Qing Chua, Hui Yan Lim, Yilin Sharon Hoe, Qiao Kang Teo, Gregory M Walton, Carol S Dweck","doi":"10.1037/dev0001916","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Overcoming challenges to achieve success involves being able to spontaneously come up with effective strategies to address different task demands. Research has linked individual differences in such strategy generation and use to optimal development over time and greater success across many areas of life. Yet, there is surprisingly little experimental evidence that tests how we might help young children to spontaneously generate and apply effective strategies across different challenging tasks. We test this in an area important to development: delaying gratification. To do this, we developed a \"strategic mindset\" storybook that encouraged children, when waiting felt hard, to ask themselves strategy-eliciting questions, such as: \"What can I try to be better at this?\" In two experiments (N = 237), 5- to 6-year-old children who read the strategic mindset storybook with an experimenter (vs. a control storybook) waited significantly longer to receive desirable treats (Experiments 1 and 2) and to watch an appealing YouTube video (Experiment 2). Moreover, they were able to wait longer because they spontaneously generated and applied a greater number of effective waiting strategies. Going beyond classic research that taught children specific strategies to delay gratification, our results suggest that our new \"metacognitive\" approach can empower children's self-regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Developmental Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001916","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Overcoming challenges to achieve success involves being able to spontaneously come up with effective strategies to address different task demands. Research has linked individual differences in such strategy generation and use to optimal development over time and greater success across many areas of life. Yet, there is surprisingly little experimental evidence that tests how we might help young children to spontaneously generate and apply effective strategies across different challenging tasks. We test this in an area important to development: delaying gratification. To do this, we developed a "strategic mindset" storybook that encouraged children, when waiting felt hard, to ask themselves strategy-eliciting questions, such as: "What can I try to be better at this?" In two experiments (N = 237), 5- to 6-year-old children who read the strategic mindset storybook with an experimenter (vs. a control storybook) waited significantly longer to receive desirable treats (Experiments 1 and 2) and to watch an appealing YouTube video (Experiment 2). Moreover, they were able to wait longer because they spontaneously generated and applied a greater number of effective waiting strategies. Going beyond classic research that taught children specific strategies to delay gratification, our results suggest that our new "metacognitive" approach can empower children's self-regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

查看原文

微信好友朋友圈 QQ好友复制链接

本刊更多论文

战略思维增强了儿童在任务中产生有效策略和延迟满足的能力。

克服挑战以获得成功包括能够自发地提出有效的策略来应对不同的任务需求。研究已经将这些策略产生和使用的个体差异与长期的最佳发展和生活中许多领域的更大成功联系起来。然而，令人惊讶的是，几乎没有实验证据可以测试我们如何帮助幼儿在不同的挑战性任务中自发地产生和应用有效的策略。我们在一个对开发很重要的领域进行了测试：延迟满足。为了做到这一点，我们开发了一本“战略思维”故事书，鼓励孩子们在等待感到困难时，问自己一些引发战略的问题，比如：“我能试着做得更好吗？”在两个实验中（N = 237）， 5- 6岁的孩子在实验者的陪同下阅读了策略心态故事书（与对照故事书相比），他们等待的时间明显更长，以获得理想的食物（实验1和2），并观看了吸引人的YouTube视频（实验2）。此外，他们能够等待的时间更长，因为他们自发地产生并应用了更多有效的等待策略。我们的研究结果超越了教导儿童延迟满足的具体策略的经典研究，表明我们新的“元认知”方法可以增强儿童的自我调节能力。（PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA，版权所有）。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文去求助

来源期刊

Developmental Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL-

CiteScore

5.80

自引率

2.50%

发文量

329

期刊介绍： Developmental Psychology ® publishes articles that significantly advance knowledge and theory about development across the life span. The journal focuses on seminal empirical contributions. The journal occasionally publishes exceptionally strong scholarly reviews and theoretical or methodological articles. Studies of any aspect of psychological development are appropriate, as are studies of the biological, social, and cultural factors that affect development. The journal welcomes not only laboratory-based experimental studies but studies employing other rigorous methodologies, such as ethnographies, field research, and secondary analyses of large data sets. We especially seek submissions in new areas of inquiry and submissions that will address contradictory findings or controversies in the field as well as the generalizability of extant findings in new populations. Although most articles in this journal address human development, studies of other species are appropriate if they have important implications for human development. Submissions can consist of single manuscripts, proposed sections, or short reports.