Mother-child pairs in a small Mexican town and in Los Angeles, California, were observed in two experimental situations in which the mother either controlled the rewards given to the child for success or failure or selected achievement goals for the child. The results of Experiment 1 were that mothers of both groups rewarded their children for success, but that Mexican mothers gave significantly more rewards for failure than did the U.S. mothers. The results of Experiment 2 were that the U.S. mothers chose significantly more difficult achievement goals for their children and did not lower the goal following failure as did the Mexican mothers. (Author)