ABSTRACT
Many researchers, including the first author of this chapter, have portrayed preschool and kindergarten children as being at little risk for achievementmotivation problems. This conclusion has been based primarily on findings that young children have high, often exaggerated perceptions of their abilities and expectations for success, which they maintain even after they experience failure. The absence of performance decrements following failure also suggests considerable resiliency. In brief, the findings of many studies suggest that it is difficult to discourage young children.
