Teacher-child interactions and kindergartners' task behaviors: Observations based on interpersonal theory

Abstract

The present study examined how teachers' interpersonal behaviors (control, affiliation) and complementarity tendencies (i.e., return low control with high control and high affiliation with similar affiliation) were related to children's task behaviors (engagement, performance). Furthermore, we investigated whether the strength of these associations depended on children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Our sample included 48 teachers and 179 kindergartners (94 boys; mean age = 66.75 months) who were selected to represent a variation of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Independent observers rated teachers' interpersonal behaviors and children's task behaviors. Teacher control was negatively related to both children's task engagement and performance, whereas teacher affiliation was not associated with children's task behaviors. Furthermore, associations between teachers' complementarity tendencies on control and children's task performance depended on the level of control that children displayed themselves. To conclude, teachers should be made aware that controlling behaviors could be detrimental for children's task behaviors. 1.1. Interpersonal theory and the complementarity principle According to the interpersonal theory (Leary, 1957), interaction processes can be described on two orthogonal dimensions: control and affiliation. Affiliation, which measures the affective quality of interactions, refers to the degree of proximity, warmth, and support in the interaction and varies from friendliness to hostility. Control, on the other hand, describes the degree of power and influence in the interaction and ranges from leadership/initiative to passiveness (Gurtman, 2001; Kiesler, 1996). As such, control refers to interpersonal qualities, such as initiative and leadership during interactions, instead of intrapersonal qualities, such as self-control and self-regulation (Eisenberg,

Examining the Reciprocity in Dyadic Teacher-Child Relationships: One-With-Many Multilevel Design

“…Indeed, studies have shown that when students experience warm/positive relationships with their teachers, they feel emotionally secure, a fact which supports their participation in learning activities and allows them to explore the classroom environment (Mashburn et al, 2008;Sabol and Pianta, 2012). Contrary, conflictual relationships between teachers and students are associated with students' school disengagement, lower academic achievement and increasing risk of behavior problems (Hamre and Pianta, 2001;Roorda et al, 2017).…”

“…Many studies have shown that young children can provide reliable information about various aspects of their school life (Mantzicopoulos and Neuharth-Pritchett, 2003;Vervoort et al, 2015;Longobardi et al, 2017;Roorda et al, 2017;Gregoriadis et al, 2020a), when asked in a developmentally appropriate way (e.g., use of child-friendly techniques like puppet interviews, story completion tasks, illustrated cards, visual aids, animation). Young children nowadays are considered able to respond to verbal questions using a binary or a limited response scale (Ruzek et al, 2020).…”

Exploring dyadic teacher–child interactions, emotional security, and task engagement in preschool children displaying externalizing behaviors

“…Although these patterns are evident for children overall, teachers have been observed to be less sensitive and more controlling during interactions with young children displaying disruptive behaviors (e.g., Rimm‐Kaufman et al, ). When teachers tend to control the interactions (e.g., try to influence the child's behaviors, do not allow the child to take the lead), children show lower levels of task engagement (Roorda, Spilt, & Koomen, ).…”