The Role of Teacher Cognition and Behavior in Children’s Peer Relations

Abstract

This study explored the role of the classroom teacher in peers' evaluations of liking and disliking of their classmates. Teacher cognitions about children (teacher liking of students, teacher attributions for aggressive student behavior) and teacher behavior toward children (positive, corrective/negative) were examined as mediators in the link between children's own behavior (aggression, prosocial behavior) and peer liking and disliking. Participants were 127 second-graders in 12 classrooms (64 males, 63 females). Data on child behavior were collected through peer and teacher report, data on teacher cognitions about children were collected through self report, data on teacher behavior toward children were collected through naturalistic classroom observations, and data on peer liking and disliking were collected through peer nominations. Data were analyzed using path analysis. Results indicated that teacher cognitions about children and corrective/negative teacher behavior toward children mediated the relations between aggressive and prosocial child behavior and peer disliking.

The Moderating Role of Verbal Aggression on the Relationship Between Parental Feedback and Peer Status Among Children with ADHD

“…Whereas children also demonstrated a tendency to rate an actor with a disliked or average reputation more positively after watching him receive praise, the effect was much less pronounced. These findings are similar to those from a recent naturalistic study that found teachers' observed negative/corrective (but not positive) behavior to partially mediate the relationship between child aggression and peer disliking (McAuliffe et al 2009). …”

“…First, we note that while we focused here on parent feedback, the comments of other adults, especially teachers, also likely have important associations with peer status (e.g., McAuliffe et al 2009). Second, while the brief playgroup interaction captures peers' impressions of liking and disliking, which may be rapidly influenced by even a single instance of aggression (e.g.…”

Teacher practices as predictors of children's classroom social preference

“…Using cross-sectional designs, a teacher's criticism toward second graders in front of peers (McAuliffe, Hubbard, & Romano, 2009) and a teacher's personal disliking of elementary school students (Chang et al, 2007) and middle school students (Chang et al, 2004) mediated the negative relation between student externalizing behaviors and social preference.…”

“…Special education and elective teachers were not eligible. Study participation was optional, and 35 teachers agreed to be in the study; however, during the course of the research 3 teachers quit their teaching job and 6 additional teachers' data were not used because fewer than 40% of their students gave active consent, a cutoff which has been suggested to obtain valid sociometric nominations (Hughes & Kwok, 2006;McAuliffe et al, 2009). All teachers provided active, written consent.…”

“…We did not have hypotheses that the impact of teacher practices on children's social preference would differ by grade level or child gender, given previous findings of such social contextual effects on peer relationships from kindergarten through middle school in both sexes Donohue et al, 2003;McAuliffe et al, 2009;Stormshak et al, 1999). However, we included exploratory interactions between each teacher practice and grade level (coded as a continuous variable) as predicting β 0j, β 1j, and β 2j and between each teacher practice and child gender (dummy coded) as predicting β 0j.…”