The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether mother presence and absence have a differential effect on children's and mothers' attributional responses for performance outcomes. It was hypothesized that children whose mothers were present to observe them perform a task would rate their effort and ability higher under success and lower under failure conditions. It also was expected that mothers' attributional ratings would follow a similar pattern for ability and effort attributions as well as ratings of their children's future performance. Forty male children in grades 3 and 4 and their mothers participated in the investigation. The data indicated a significant performance-(success and failure)-by-maternal-involvement (presence and absence) interaction for children's attributional ratings of effort, task difficulty, and luck and for mothers' attributional ratings of their children's effort, task difficulty, and future performance.