The role of child temperament on low‐income preschool children's relationships with their parents and teachers

The current study examined the associations between low‐income preschool children's temperament (reactive and regulatory) and their relationships with parents and teachers. In particular, we focused on the moderating role of regulatory temperament on reactive temperament in the prediction of closeness and conflict with parents and teachers. Two hundred ninety‐one children (M = 53.88 months, SD = 6.44 months), their parents, and teachers from 3 different preschools serving low‐income children in 2 midwestern cities in the United States participated. Parents reported on temperament and parent–child relationships, and teachers reported on teacher–child relationships. Hierarchical regression models using SAS PROC MIXED were employed to allow for nesting of children within classrooms. After controlling for child age, gender, ethnicity, and parent education, children's reactive temperament was negatively associated with parent–child closeness and positively associated with parent–child conflict and teacher–child conflict. Children's regulatory temperament was positively related to teacher–child closeness and negatively associated with teacher–child conflict. Regulatory temperament moderated the association between reactive temperament and teacher–child closeness. These findings suggest that although reactive temperament potentially undermines closeness in relationships with teachers, regulatory temperament can buffer the influence of reactive temperament on teacher–child closeness.

Highlights

• This study examined the association between children's temperament and their relationships with parents and teachers.
• Reactive temperament was positively associated with parent/teacher–child conflict and negatively associated with parent–child closeness. Regulatory temperament was a moderator for the association between reactive temperament and teacher–child closeness.
• Improving children's regulatory temperament may be helpful for children with the reactive temperament to have better social relationships with their teachers.

     

She's supporting them; who's supporting her? Preschool center-level social-emotional supports and teacher well-being

Preschool teachers across the country have been charged to prepare children socially and emotionally for kindergarten. Teachers working in preschool centers are supporting children's social and emotional learning (SEL) within a rich ecology of emotion and social relationships and the present study considers how the supports implemented for children's SEL at the center-level are associated with teachers' psychological health and workplace experiences. Hierarchical linear models were constructed using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 cohort. Results indicate that although teachers work in individual classrooms, they share common perceptions at the center-level of their workplace climate, access to support, and, although to a lesser extent, experience commonalities in psychological health and job satisfaction. Furthermore, in centers that had implemented more supports for children's SEL (including access to mental health consultants, classroom curriculum, and training and resources for teachers) teachers were less depressed, more satisfied with their jobs, felt more supported in managing challenging behavior, and viewed the workplace climate of their center as more positive. Findings are discussed in light of the national efforts to increase and retain a high-quality early childhood workforce.     

The role of teachers' commitment to implement in delivering evidence-based social-emotional learning programs

Although there are reasons to believe that teachers' commitment to learn and enact an evidence-based program (i.e., their commitment to implement) predicts their implementation fidelity, there is surprisingly little quantitative research testing this relationship. Using a national large-scale evaluation of three preschool social-emotional interventions, this study investigated how strongly teachers' commitment predicted implementation fidelity and whether commitment was a meaningful predictor of fidelity as compared to other individual factors (i.e., teacher stress at baseline) and contextual factors (i.e., collegial supports, classroom behavioral problems, and classroom quality at baseline). We surveyed 230 preschool teachers in their first year of implementing the interventions; data sources include surveys from teachers and 52 intervention coaches as well as classroom observational data. We found that teachers' baseline commitment consistently predicted implementation fidelity across time and that commitment predicted unique variation in fidelity after accounting for other individual and contextual factors. In addition, implementation fidelity had a moderate positive relationship with teachers' baseline classroom quality and a small negative association with baseline classroom behavior problems. Findings are discussed with respect to implementation science in education.     

Understanding how children's engagement and teachers' interactions combine to predict school readiness

This study examined the quality of preschool classroom experiences through the combination of children's individual patterns of engagement and teachers' classroom-level interactions in predicting children's gains in school readiness. A sample of 605 children and 309 teachers participated. The quality of children's engagement and teacher interactions was directly observed in the classroom, and direct assessments of children's school readiness skills were obtained in the fall and again in the spring. Latent profile analysis was used to examine children's patterns of engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks. Children's engagement and the quality of teacher interactions were associated with gains in school readiness skills. The effect of children's individual classroom engagement on their expressive vocabulary was moderated by classroom-level teacher interactions. The results suggest that when teachers engage in highly responsive interactions across the children in their classrooms, children may develop more equitable school readiness skills regardless of their individual engagement patterns.     

The Reciprocal Relations Between Teachers’ Perceptions of Children's Behavior Problems and Teacher–Child Relationships in the First Preschool Year

To examine the reciprocal relations between teacher–child relationships and children's behavior problems, the authors analyzed cross-lagged longitudinal data on teacher–child relationships and children's internalizing and externalizing problems using a structural equation modeling approach. The homeroom teachers of 105 first-year preschoolers aged 2–3 years filled in the Student–Teacher Relationship Scale and the Child Behavior Checklist/2–3, first at 3 months after the children's preschool entrance and then at the end of the first preschool year. Results showed significant cross-wave reciprocal relations between externalizing problems and teacher–child conflict and significant cross-wave relation from early internalizing problems to later teacher–child conflict. However, the cross-wave associations between internalizing and externalizing problems and teacher–child closeness were not significant.     

Gains in teacher-child interaction quality and children's school readiness skills: Does it matter where teachers start?

Teachers' initial level of interactional quality at the beginning of a school year (baseline) was examined as a potential moderating factor in the relation between change in interactional quality and change in children's school readiness skills throughout an academic year. Participants were 269 preschool teachers and 1179 children from low-income backgrounds. Teacher-child interactions and children's school readiness skills were measured in the fall and spring of the preschool year. Overall, improvements in the quality of teacher-child interactions across the year were not significantly related to children's skill development. Three important findings emerged; two main effects and one interaction effect. Gains in teachers' instructional support across the year were related to children's literacy and inhibitory control development. Additionally, the relation between gains in teachers' emotional support and gains in children's inhibitory control was moderated by teachers' initial level of emotional support at the beginning of the year. These findings provide limited evidence for the need to consider teachers' initial level of quality and how much they change across the year in understanding the relation between quality of teacher-child interactions and children's skill development.     

The relation of young children's vicarious emotional responding to social competence,regulation, and emotionality

Abstract

The relation of preschool and kindergarten children's vicarious emotional responding to their social competence, regulation (attentional and coping styles), and emotionality (negative emotional intensity and dispositional negative affect) was examined. Vicarious responding was assessed by means of facial reactions to a film about a peer in a social conflict and children's reported negative affect to viewing peers' real-life negative emotion. Mothers and teachers reported on children's regulation and emotionality, social competence was assessed with sociometric nominations, teachers' reports, and observations of children's real-life anger reactions. Facial concerned attention during the film was associated with various measures of social competence, regulation, and low or moderate negative emotionality. Although negative vicarious emotional responding in real contexts was infrequently related to measures of interest, girls who reported intense negative vicarious emotional responses were relatively unregulated and low in social competence. Finally, with age, regulation of vicarious emotional responding was increasingly related to children's sociometric status and to girls' coping at school. Thus, as they get older, children's abilities to regulate emotions may take on increasing importance in others' evaluations of their social competencies.     

Catching sight of children with internalizing symptoms in upper elementary classrooms

Teachers play a crucial role in the assessment of children's internalizing symptoms but may not always succeed in accurately identifying such symptoms in class. Using a multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) approach, this study aimed to explore teacher and child characteristics that may explain measurement bias in teachers' ratings of internalizing symptoms at the between- and within-teacher level. Upper elementary school teachers (N = 92, 74.9% female) filled out the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Student-Teacher Relationship Scale, and Student-Specific Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale for randomly selected children (N = 690, 50.5% girls, Grades 3–6) from their classrooms. Participating teachers and children also responded to several background questions. Multilevel SEMs suggested that teachers' self-efficacy beliefs toward, relationship experiences with, and externalizing symptom ratings of individual children affected their ratings of these children's internalizing symptoms at the within-teacher level. Specifically, given equal levels of internalizing behavior, teachers were likely to systematically under-identify symptoms of anxiety and over-identify bullying for children with more externalizing behavior and conflictual relationships, or in circumstances where teachers had lower self-efficacy. Children with high levels of closeness received systematically higher ratings on somatic complaints and lower ratings on solitary behavior and peer problems. At the between-teacher level, less experienced teachers were more likely to over-identify symptoms of worries than were more experienced teachers, given equal levels of internalizing symptoms. As such, these findings extend the limited body of evidence on children's internalizing symptoms in upper elementary school.     

Mother–child relationship quality from preschool to adolescence: Variation by maternal education

Using longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1088), we examine changes in maternal perception of closeness and conflict in the mother–child relationship from the child's preschool to adolescent years, with attention to variation by maternal education. Analyses using individual growth models show that mother–child closeness increases, while mother–child conflict decreases, from preschool to first grade. From first grade to age 15, mother–child closeness decreases, while mother–child conflict increases, both gradually. The decrease in mother–child conflict from preschool to first grade and the increases in mother–child conflict from first to fifth grade, sixth grade, and age 15 are less steep for mothers with a college degree than for mothers without a college degree. These findings underscore the importance of examining changes in parent–child relationships using longitudinal data across children's developmental stages and their variations by parental social and economic status.     

Stress mindset predicts job turnover among preschool teachers

Teaching is one of the most challenging jobs, with a high turnover rate. Unfortunately, we know very little about how to retain teachers. This longitudinal field study (N = 310) examined whether preschool teachers' stress mindset—that is, whether they believe stress is harmful or beneficial—predicted their job stress and turnover within a school year. The results suggested that teachers who believe in the potential benefits of stress experienced less job stress, and were therefore less likely to leave their jobs as quickly. These findings suggest that teachers' stress mindsets predict their psychological well-being and professional development.     

Similarities and dissimilarities between teachers' and students' relationship views in upper elementary school: The role of personal teacher and student attributes

The present study aimed to advance insight into similarities and dissimilarities between teachers' and students' views of closeness and conflict in their dyadic relationship, and personal teacher and student attributes that contribute to these views. In total, 464 students (50.2% girls) and 62 teachers (67.5% females) from grades 4 to 6 participated in this study. Teachers filled out questionnaires about their background characteristics, self-efficacy (TSES), and student–teacher relationship perceptions (STRS) and students answered questions about their demographics and the student–teacher relationship quality (SPARTS). Peer-nominations were used to measure students' internalizing and externalizing behavior. Tests for measurement invariance suggested that the conflict and closeness constructs both approximated similarity across students and teachers. Multilevel structural equation models furthermore indicated that students' relationship perceptions, and conflict in particular, were predicted by their own gender, socioeconomic status, and internalizing and externalizing behavior. Additionally, teaching experience negatively predicted students' perceived conflicts. Teachers' relationship perceptions were both predicted by their own characteristics (teaching experience) and student features (gender, socioeconomic status, and externalizing behavior). These predictors explained between 39% and 61% of the variance in student- and teacher-perceived closeness and conflict. Last, teachers' general self-efficacy was positively associated with mean levels of closeness, and negatively associated with mean levels of conflict across student–teacher dyads.     

The quality of caregiving in child care: relations to teacher complexity of thinking and perceived supportiveness of the work environment

This study examined the relationship between the complexity of thinking about children by child care teachers and observed teachers' caregiving for infants and toddlers. It was hypothesized that the perceived supportiveness of the work environment would affect this relationship. Fifty‐six child care teachers completed a survey assessing complexity of thinking about children's behaviour as well as a measure of the perceived opportunities for professional development. Teachers' quality of caregiving was assessed using the Caregiver Interaction Scale. Planned contrasts revealed that when professional development opportunities were perceived unfavourably, teachers who were complex in thinking about children's behaviour provided significantly more sensitive care than did teachers who were less complex in their thinking. Findings indicate that the complexity of teachers' thinking about children may be very important in understanding teacher's sensitivity when the quality of the work environment is poor. High‐quality work environments may buffer teachers with less complexity of thinking from being less sensitive with children. Efforts to improve quality of care could focus on individual teachers to improve their complexity of thinking as well as on the work environment to make it more supportive of teachers' professional development. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Mixed‐Method Examination of Preschool Teacher Beliefs About Social–Emotional Learning and Relations to Observed Emotional Support

The connections between parents' socialization practices and beliefs about emotions, and children's emotional development have been well studied; however, teachers' impacts on children's social–emotional learning (SEL) remain widely understudied. In the present study, private preschool and Head Start teachers (N = 32) were observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Comparison groups were created based on their observed emotional support and then compared on their qualitative responses in focus group discussions on beliefs about emotions and SEL strategies. Teachers acknowledged the importance of preparing children emotionally (as well as academically) for kindergarten, but substantial differences emerged between the highly emotionally supportive and moderately emotionally supportive teachers in three areas: (1) teachers' beliefs about emotions and the value of SEL; (2) teachers' socialization behaviours and SEL strategies; and (3) teachers' perceptions of their roles as emotion socializers. Understanding such differences can facilitate the development of intervention programs and in‐service training to help teachers better meet students' SEL needs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies Preschool Program on teacher–children relationships and children's social competence in Turkey

This quasi‐experimental study examined the effects of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) Preschool Program on the outcomes of children's social‐emotional competence, perceived relationships between teacher and children and teachers' ability to create a positive classroom atmosphere. Two hundred and eighty five children (48–72 months) and teachers in Izmir participated in the intervention, and 280 children (48–72 months) and teachers participated as comparison group. Intervention teachers implemented PATHS in their classrooms. For data triangulation, multiple sources of data were collected in the study. Classrooms were observed using two different scales. Teacher rated students using another two different scales. Children were assessed with an interview to evaluate their perceptions of relationships. Intervention group teachers reported greater improvement of children's social‐emotional skills, interpersonal relationship skills and emotion regulation. Furthermore, when observed intervention group children showed higher levels of pro‐social behaviour, increased levels of compliance, better problem solving skills and more positive feelings. Intervention group children also described their relationships with their teachers as significantly more positively. Finally, intervention group teachers perceived more dependency in their relationships with children.     

The combined effects of teacher-child and peer relationships on children's social-emotional adjustment

Teachers and peers represent two important dimensions of the classroom social ecology that have important implications for children's social-emotional adjustment. This study examined the combined effects of teacher-child relationships (TCR) and peer relationships for 6–7 year-old children on their social-emotional adjustment at 8–9 years. The sample was comprised of children and their teachers participating in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 2857). Teachers reported on TCR, peer relationships, and children's emotional well-being, and children provided self-reported self-concept and school liking during a face-to-face interview. The analytic approach extends previous research by modeling TCR and peer relationships in combination, using cluster analysis to understand the nature of 6–7 year-old children's social relationships in the classroom. Five distinct profiles of children were identified: adaptive, teacher-oriented, teacher-child conflict prominent, non-adaptive, and invisible. The adaptive profile had the best outcomes on all three aspects of social-emotional adjustment at age 8–9; the non-adaptive profile had the poorest outcomes, and the invisible group was mid-range. The teacher-oriented and teacher-child conflict prominent groups had mixed outcomes for social-emotional adjustment. Implications for school psychologists and teachers are discussed.     

Child-care chaos and teachers' responsiveness: The indirect associations through teachers' emotion regulation and coping

Teachers in early child-care settings are key contributors to children's development. However, the role of teachers' emotional abilities (i.e., emotion regulation and coping skills) and the role of teacher-perceived environmental chaos in relation to their responsiveness to children are understudied. The current study explored the direct and indirect associations between teachers' perceptions of child-care chaos and their self-reported contingent reactions towards children's negative emotions and challenging social interactions via teachers' emotional regulation and coping strategies. The sample consisted of 1129 preschool-aged classroom teachers in day care and public pre-K programs across the US. We first found that child-care chaos was directly associated with teachers' non-supportive reactions after controlling for multiple program and teacher characteristics. In addition, teachers in more chaotic child-care settings had less reappraisal and coping skills, which in turn, was associated with lower levels of positive responsiveness to children. Teachers reporting a higher degree of chaos used more suppression strategies, which in turn, was associated with teachers' non-supportive reactions and fewer expressive encouragement reactions to children's emotions. Results of this exploratory study suggest that it is important to prepare teachers to handle chaotic environments with clear guidelines and rules. In order to encourage teachers' supportive responses to children, intervention programs are needed to address teachers' coping and emotion regulation strategies in early childhood education.     

Dispositional mindfulness as a positive predictor of psychological well-being and the role of the private self-consciousness insight factor

The current study explored relationships among dispositional mindfulness, the private self-consciousness (PrSC) insight factor, and psychological well-being. Several mindfulness studies indicate that dispositional mindfulness is a positive predictor of psychological well-being. In a distinctly different area of consciousness research, Grant, Franklin, and Langford’s (2002) PrSC insight factor shows similar predictive results. Here it is hypothesized that these two seemingly independent dispositional consciousness constructs have overlapping variance and that insight can serve as a partial mediator for dispositional mindfulness when it predicts psychological well-being. Participants were 184 university students who were administered a self-report measure of dispositional mindfulness, insight, and psychological well-being. Correlational analyses revealed that mindfulness and insight were significantly and positively correlated with each other and with psychological well-being. Bootstrap regression analyses supported the model of insight as a partial mediator of the mindfulness–psychological well-being predictive relationship.     

The relationships between parenting stress,parenting behaviour and preschoolers' social competence and behaviour problems in the classroom

Young children develop social and emotional competence through interactions with others in the two major contexts in which they spend time: home and preschool. This study examined whether parenting stress in the home context is related to the children's behaviour while in preschool. Previous research has suggested that parenting stress negatively influences parenting behaviour, which in turn has been shown to impact children's development. This study examined the direct relationship between parenting stress and children's behaviour in two types of preschool programmes: private day care centres and Head Start. Parenting stress was significantly related to teacher ratings of social competence, internalizing behaviours, and externalizing behaviours, and the effects of parenting behaviour do not appear to mediate this relationship. Parenting stress was most strongly related to children's social competence. Parents' reports of expectations for their child's behaviour appear to weakly moderate the relationship between externalizing behaviour and parenting stress. This study suggests that examination of a parent's level of stress, in addition to parenting practices, may be important in research and interventions with preschool children's behaviour and social competence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Moderating Role of English Proficiency in the Association Between Immigrant Chinese Mothers' Authoritative Parenting and Children's Outcomes

The authors' objective was to investigate the association between Chinese immigrant mothers' authoritative parenting and their children's socioemotional and behavioral difficulties. Participants were 136 first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers with 3–5-year-old children residing in the United States. Authoritative parenting was associated with lower socioemotional and behavioral difficulties in children as reported by preschool teachers. Further moderation analyses revealed that immigrant mothers' English proficiency moderated the association between authoritative parenting and children's difficulties. Specifically, authoritative parenting was significantly associated with fewer total difficulties only for children with mothers who reported higher English proficiency.     

Preschool children and marital conflict: A constructive view

Effects of marital conflict on children are well documented, but few studies have examined the impact of constructive conflict. This paper examines scenarios of largely constructive marital conflict, and their relations with their preschool children behaviours, in naturalistic situations in the home. Participants were married couples and their preschool child, studied over three years (n = 33 at T1), with children aged about 2 years at the outset. Microanalytic observational coding of marital interactions and children's responses were conducted and contingency analyses were performed. Links were found between parents' relational control strategies and non-verbal affect and children's responses to parents' constructive conflicts. For example, parents' positive affect and children's interfering in conflict scenarios were associated. Children's interference in conflicts was associated with triadic relational sequences, regardless of parents' particular relational control strategies. Findings are discussed in terms of perspectives on understanding children's reactions to constructive conflicts in terms of broader marital and child systems.