Temperamental Anger and Effortful Control, Teacher–Child Conflict, and Externalizing Behavior Across the Elementary School Years

Abstract

This study examined teacher-child conflict as a possible mediator of the effects of temperamental anger and effortful control on subsequent externalizing behavior. Reciprocal influences between teacher-child conflict and externalizing behavior were also examined. Participants were 1,152 children (49% female; 81.6% non-Hispanic White) from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Multivariate growth curve modeling revealed that greater effortful control at age 54 months indirectly predicted lower levels of, and subsequent changes in, externalizing behavior from kindergarten to Grade 6 through reduced teacher-child conflict. An alternative model, in which greater effortful control predicted lower teacher-child conflict through lower externalizing behavior, received less support. Within persons, greater-than-expected teacher-child conflict predicted greater-than-expected teacher-reported externalizing behavior concurrently and over time.

Developmental trajectories of teacher-student relationships and longitudinal associations with children's conduct problems from Grades 1 to 12

“…Taken together, several general conclusions can be drawn from variable-centered studies on TSR and conduct problems. Although these studies corroborate the premise that there are strong concurrent and prospective associations between TSR and conduct problems (Doumen et al, 2008;Hamre & Pianta, 2001;Ly & Zhou, 2018;Mejia & Hoglund, 2016;Pakarinen et al, 2018;Skalická, Stenseng, & Wichstrøm, 2015;Zhang & Sun, 2011), there are stronger and more consistent associations between conduct problems and conflict than warmth (Ly & Zhou, 2018;Mejia & Hoglund, 2016) and for teacher as compared to parent-reported conduct problems (Crockett et al, 2018;. However, most of these studies have been based on short-term longitudinal designs to investigate discrete developmental periods or stages (e.g., within a school year or across a few grade levels) and have been conducted in early and middle childhood.…”

“…More specifically, conflict increased from kindergarten to Grade 4 and then decreased from Grade 4 to Grade 6 (i.e., an inverse u-shaped trajectory). In contrast, closeness decreased from Kindergarten to Grade 6, with the rate of decline becoming more pronounced in later grades (for similar results, see Crockett, Wasserman, Rudasill, Hoffman, & Kalutskaya, 2018;Lee & Bierman, 2018). Examining a relatively longer developmental period and utilizing a sample of children at risk for academic problems, Wu and Hughes (2015) also reported a declining trend for teacher-student warmth from Grades 1 to 9, with rates of decline being more pronounced during the transition to middle school.…”

“Draw Me a Picture”

“…These findings are generally consistent with research based on Bowlby's (1969) theoretical contentions, suggesting that children with externalizing behavior tend to express their feelings of rejection and insecure attachment in the form of frustration, anger, and distress (Carlson & Sroufe, 1995;Madigan et al, 2016). Moreover, studies using questionnaire measures of student-teacher relationship quality (e.g., Birch & Ladd, 1998;Crockett et al, 2018;Hamre et al, 2008;Henricsson & Rydell, 2004) have shown that teachers' reports of problem behaviors may explain as much as 53% of the variance in conflictual studentteacher relationships. In contrast to those studies, though, we used a multi-informant approach to evaluate linkages between child behavior and student-teacher relationships.…”

“…In studies employing child reports Murray & Zvoch, 2011) and teacher reports of relationship quality (e.g., Birch & Ladd, 1998;Henricsson & Rydell, 2004;Jerome et al, 2009;Zhang & Sun, 2011), children with externalizing behavior have more conflict with teachers. Cross-lagged longitudinal studies (Crockett et al, 2018;Doumen et al, 2008;Mejia & Hoglund, 2016;Roorda et al, 2014) even found evidence for small reciprocal associations across elementary grades, with students' externalizing behavior predicting teacher-reported conflict and vice versa.…”

Strengthening Executive Function and Self-Regulation Through Teacher-Student Interaction in Preschool and Primary School Children: A Systematic Review

“…The proposed framework organises TSI into three domains reflecting distinct features of these interactions; namely, emotional support (for instance, acknowledging children's emotions and experiences, and sensitively responding to them), classroom organisation (for instance, clarifying the rules and expectations), and instructional support (for instance, asking open-ended questions) (Downer et al, 2010;Hamre et al, 2013). In agreement with the framework, numerous observational studies have shown a correlation between the quality of TSI at the classroom level (i.e., emotional, instructional, and organisational support) and children's EF/SR skills (e.g., Cadima et al, 2015b;Crockett et al, 2017;Acar et al, 2018;Goble et al, 2019; for a review, see Cumming et al, 2019). For instance, a recent meta-analysis (Vandenbroucke et al, 2017(Vandenbroucke et al, , 2018 informs further regarding the strength of the correlations between these concepts, and overall effect sizes indicate small to medium associations between TSI and working memory, and a small association with inhibition, but not cognitive flexibility.…”