Temperamental Differences and Classroom Incivility: Exploring the Role of Individual Differences

Abstract

Incivility involves rude, discourteous, and disrespectful attitudes and behaviours. The present study examined how various temperament traits were related to beliefs of classroom incivility among adolescents. The sample comprised of 222 adolescents (120 boys) between the ages of 12 and 17 (M age = 14.07, SD = 1.54) who were recruited from various extracurricular clubs and sports teams in Southern Ontario. Both intentional and unintentional incivility were examined through separate hierarchical multiple regressions. Lower Effortful Control and lower Frustration significantly predicted unintentional incivility. In addition, lower Affiliation and lower Effortful Control significantly predicted intentional incivility. The results are discussed highlighting practical implications in educational settings, as well as suggestions for future research on incivility, given its potential associations with more negative antisocial behaviours. The results suggest that although there may be shared temperament traits of adolescents who take part in classroom incivility, a disposition for specific subtypes may differ based on the specific temperament characteristics of adolescents.

Be a Little Rude, but not too Much: Exploring Classroom Incivility and Social Network Position in Adolescents

“…Lastly, since this was the first study to explore classroom incivility and social network position, we chose to focus on overall classroom incivility. However, previous research has examined subtypes of classroom incivility based on intentionality (Farrell et al, 2016;Spadafora et al, 2016Spadafora et al, , 2020; thus, future studies should examine whether there might be differences in the association with social network position in relation to these subtypes of classroom incivility. Future studies could also investigate observer-reported classroom incivility.…”

The Power of Civility: A Transdisciplinary Examination of Adolescent Social Power and Bullying

“…In this context, more specifically, we refer to a duality of the role of civility, in that a lack of civility may hamper bullying research, but a lack of civility may also serve to embolden adolescents toward abusing their power in the form of bullying (Marini, 2009). This lack of civility appears to increase with age from early to mid-adolescence (Spadafora, Farrell, Provenzano, Marini, & Volk, 2018), possibly because of a combination of an increased desire for reward seeking along with a diminished capacity for self-control (Steinberg, 2008). In particular, an arrogant lack of cooperativeness may allow individuals to both ignore social civility conventions and exploit social power.…”

“…This may help explain the recent success of an anti-bullying program that focuses on working with, rather than against, adolescents' desire for social power. Adolescents appear to be keenly aware of the potential dynamics associated with social power, its acquisition, and its role in the peer group (Cillessen & Rose, 2005;Spadafora, Farrell, et al, 2018). So interventions that try to go against these norms (e.g., relying on unpopular children to change the behaviour of popular children) tend to fail (Garandeau, Lee, & Salmivalli, 2014).…”

“…Thus, civility, a seemingly simple and potentially unimportant concept, might actually represent the important underpinnings of a whole range of adolescent social behaviour, including intervening against bullying (Spadafora, Farrell, et al, 2018). Fortunately, we know from research that most bullies are highly engaged in obtaining social dominance, but not all individuals who have social power become bullies (Reijentjes et al, 2013).…”

Students’ perception of incivility behaviors and its frequency of occurrence inside school environment

“…Adolescents is a period when personality and neurological tendencies may predispose individuals towards engaging in behavior that lacks consideration for others (Ashton &Lee, 2016 andVolk, 2016). The rise of uncivil behaviors in educational settings may be a reflection of a much larger problem concerning the decline of courteous and polite behaviors and interactions between people in society (Moore, 2012).…”