Prediction and constancy of cognitive-motivational structures in mothers and their adolescents

Three clinically-derived, cognitive-motivational structures were predicted in 68 adolescents from their caregiving situations as revealed in their mothers' interviews, elicited six years earlier. Basic to each structure is a motivational concern and its related social cognitive style, a style which corresponds to a Piagetian cognitive stage: concrete operational, intuitive or symbolic. Because these structure types parse a non-clinical population, current views of health and accordingly goals of treatment may need modification.The data for this investigation were drawn from the Family Socialization Project (at the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley) directed by Diana Baumrind. The authors acknowledge the William T. Grant Foundation for its generous support of this project.