Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014;29(2):193-204.
doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.01.002. Epub 2014 Jan 24.

Behavioral Exchanges between Teachers and Children Over the Course of a Typical Preschool Day: Testing Bidirectional Associations

Timothy W Curby  1 , Jason T Downer  2 , Leslie Booren  2
Affiliations

Behavioral Exchanges between Teachers and Children Over the Course of a Typical Preschool Day: Testing Bidirectional Associations

Timothy W Curby et al. Early Child Res Q. 2014.

Abstract

In the present study, 314 preschool classrooms and 606 children were observed to understand the behavioral exchanges between teachers and children. Teachers' emotionally and organizationally supportive behaviors and children's engagement were explored for longitudinal associations throughout a day. Observations were conducted in each classroom wherein emotional and organizational supports were assessed, followed by observations of two children's positive engagement with teachers, tasks, and peers as well as negative classroom engagement. Cross-lagged autoregressive models were used to test for time-lagged associations which could be unidirectional or bidirectional. Results indicated teachers' emotionally and organizationally supportive behaviors were related to later child engagement in seven of eight models. Furthermore, in two of those seven models, we found evidence of bidirectional associations whereby children's engagement was associated with later teacher emotional and organizational supports. Findings are discussed in terms of understanding classroom processes over the course of a day in preschool.

Keywords: bidirectional associations; children’s engagement; preschool; teacher supports.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arnold DH, McWilliams L, Arnold EH. Teacher discipline and child misbehavior in day care: Untangling causality with correlational data. Developmental Psychology. 1998;34:276–287. - PubMed
    1. Barsade SG. The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly. 2002;47:644–675.
    1. Bentler PM, Bonett DG. Significance tests and goodness-of-fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin. 1980;88:588–606.
    1. Besnard T, Verlaan P, Davidson M, Vitaro F, Poulin F, Capuano F. Bidirectional influences between maternal and paternal parenting and children’s disruptive behaviour from kindergarten to grade 2. Early Child Development and Care. 2013;118:1–19.
    1. Bohlmann NL, Downer JT, Maier MF, Booren LM, Williford AP, Howes C. Observations of children’s engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks: Applicability of the individualized classroom assessment scoring system in diverse preschool settings. 2013 Manuscript in preparation.

LinkOut - more resources