Mastery motivation is a psychological force that urges an individual to attempt independently in a focused and persistent manner to solve a problem or master a skill or task (Barrett & Morgan, 2018). Recent studies have demonstrated the significance of mastery motivation in evaluating young students(Shonkoff & Philips, 2000). Furthermore, studies have demonstrated an association between mastery motivation and school-related skills such as reading, maths, establishing social relations and succeeding in environmental and physical activities (e.g. Jόzsa et al., 2020). However, studies on the role of mastery motivation in students with MID have produced contradicting results. Studies that have used parental reports have generally concluded that children with intellectual or developmental delays have a lower level of mastery motivation.

In contrast, those using behavioural assessments (moderately challenging tasks for each child) identified no motivational weaknesses in those with disabilities (Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2011). However, more recent research fails to provide robust evidence for a motivational deficit in individuals with intellectual disabilities (Wang et al., 2020). No studies have also compared self-ratings and parental reports. Different aetiologies such as Down Syndrome, Motor delay, Developmental Disability from a range of causes and Autism are also assumed to interact with the development of motivation differently compared to typically developing children(Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2011). Currently, there is a strive to explore whether specific motivational characteristics are linked to the different phenotypes per se or shared with other developmental disorders (Gilmore, Cuskelly, & Browning, 2017). However, since Mastery Motivation is malleable, it can be enhanced through intervention strategies such as the "One Step Ahead" approach (Mermelshtine, 2017), the Pivotal Response Treatment approach (Koegel et al., 2012) and adopting natural reinforcers directly related to the learning task (Hashmi, Seok, & Halik, 2017) among others. The goal of the present study is to reveal the role of mastery motivation, IQ, and parents' level of education in math and reading achievement among students with and without Mild Intellectual Deficit (MID) in Hungary.

We randomly sampled 1210 students aged between 9 and 15 years from the Hungarian Educational Authority's school database. For typically developing grade 3(n = 147), 5(n = 249), 7(n = 248) and MID, grade 3(n = 210), 5 (n = 146) and 7(n = 220). For comparison students with MID were obtained from special education schools and those without from ordinary schools. The Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices IQ test (Raven, Raven, & Court, 1998) was used to measure IQ. The Cronbach's alpha reliability of the Raven IQ test was 0.90 for typically developing, 0.89 for MID students and 0.93 for the total sample. The reading comprehension test included one continuous (22 items) and two non-continuous (16 and 9 items) texts. The continuous text was an informative description of an elephant, which comprised 140 words. The 16-item non-continuous text was a theatre poster introducing the date and the performing actors of a children's musical show in 87 words. The other non-continuous text was the product description on the wrapping papers of two food products (yoghurt and a biscuit). Cronbach-alpha reliability of the test was 0.95 for MID, 0.93 for typically developing and 0.96 for all total samples. The test of basic mathematics skills investigated: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division within the range of 0-100 (15-15 items for each basic arithmetic operation), number series (20 items), and simple problem-solving (20 items). The reliability of this test is 0.96 for both MID and non-MID students and 0.97 for the total sample. We used the Hungarian version of the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ 17) to measure mastery motivation. For students with MID, Students' self-report questionnaires were adapted from versions of DMQ 17 for students with MID (Józsa & Molnár, 2013). We regard cognitive persistence as a measure of mastery motivation in this study. The reliability was 0.92 for typically developing students, 0.88 for students with MID, and 0.91 for the total sample. Students' self-rating scale included five items. Its reliability was 0.73 for typically developing students, 0.69 for students with MID and 0.71 for the total sample. We also measured parental education by the mother's and the father's highest levels of education. We used identical measures for typically developing students with MID for both samples.

Cognitive persistence of typically developing children rated by teachers had higher and significant correlations with IQ, Math and Reading (r =.38 - .45, p < 0.01), than MID sample (r =.22 - .24, p < 0.01) respectively. A similar trend was observed in student self-reports for typically developing IQ, Math and Reading (r = .17 -.22, p<0.01) and MID (r =.13 - .18). Additionally, hierarchical linear regression showed that cognitive persistence accounted for 40% (10% higher than IQ) of the variance in Reading among typically developing students and 29%(3% higher than IQ) in children with MID. In math, cognitive persistence accounted for 43% (10% higher than IQ) in typical children and 50% (3% higher than IQ) of the variance in MID. Our hypothesis was upheld that mastery motivation predicts math and reading performance, over and above the role of child IQ and parental education in both populations. This study agrees with other studies such as Józsa and Molnár (2013) that found that the cognitive persistence scale of Mastery Motivation is associated with academic achievement. It also predicted academic achievement better than developmental scores in children with developmental disabilities (Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2009). This study contributes to using self-reports in the rating of students with and without MID to assess mastery motivation.

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