气质与童年早期的师生关系:家庭情感环境的作用

通过对118名幼儿的父母和教师间隔两年的追踪研究,考察了气质对童年早期师生关系的直接预测作用,以及气质与家庭情感环境在预测师生关系中的交互作用。结果发现:(1)控制先前的师生关系、性别、月龄、母子关系及家庭情感环境后,气质活动水平、节律性、趋避性对两年后的师生关系有显著的直接预测作用;(2)三种气质与家庭情感环境的交互作用对两次测量的师生关系也有显著的预测作用。这些发现同时支持了气质影响儿童发展的直接作用模型和交互作用模型。

Temperament and Early Teacher-Child Relationships: The Moderating Role of Family Affective Environment

Temperament has been regarded as crucial in child development. Two models dominate current research on the role of early temperament in children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, namely, direct effect model and interactive effect model. Although research has placed great emphasis on the impact that temperament has on peer competence, relatively little attention has been paid on the role of temperament in children’s competence to establish positive relationships with teachers. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of early temperament in young children’s relationships with teachers. More importantly, both direct effect and interactive effect models were tested in order to fully understand the role of temperament in children’s teacher-child relationships. Based on a two-year and two-wave longitudinal sample of 118 preschoolers and their parents and teachers, the current study examined the relations of temperamental activity level, rhythmicity, approach/withdrawal and family affective environment to teacher-child relationships by using Parent Temperament Questionnaire (PTQ), Family Environment Scale (FES), and Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS). Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the unique effects of temperament and the interactive effects of temperament and family affective environment on teacher-child relationships. Results showed that approach/withdrawal, rhythmicity, and activity level were associated significantly with teacher-child relationships two years after children’s preschool entrance, and that these temperamental dimensions accounted for 3~13% of the variances in these teacher-child relationships. Moreover, the temperamental dimensions also interacted with family affective environment to influence teacher-child relationships at both waves, which accounted for 4~10% of the variances in the relationships. These findings highlight the importance of examining the interactive effect of temperament and environmental factors on children’s teacher competence, and expand the existing research on temperament and teacher competence by testing both direct effect and interactive effect models.