Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Psychology, Developmental, Psychology, school engagement, peer popularity, peer acceptance, teacher-child relationships, peer-child relationships, SOCIOMETRIC POPULARITY, CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT, EMOTIONAL ADJUSTMENT, PERCEIVED POPULARITY, STUDENT RELATIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP QUALITY, STRUCTURAL MODEL, VERBAL ABUSE, REJECTION, CHILDHOOD, Aggression, Attention, Child, Child Behavior, Child Development, Conflict, Psychological, Faculty, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Peer Group, Schools, 1303 Specialist Studies in Education, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Developmental & Child Psychology, 3904 Specialist studies in education, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology

Abstract:

The present longitudinal study examined how relationships with teachers and peers jointly shape the development of children’s behavioral engagement in late elementary school. A sample of 586 children (46% boys, Mage = 9.26 years at Wave 1) was followed throughout Grades 4, 5, and 6. A multidimensional approach was adopted, distinguishing support and conflict as teacher-child relationship dimensions, and acceptance and popularity as peer relationship dimensions. Additive, moderation and mediation models were tested. Latent growth curve modeling showed evidence for an additive model in which high initial and increasing levels of teacher support and high initial levels of peer acceptance independently reduce the normative declines in children’s behavioral engagement. This implies that targeting only one relationship in intervention cannot compensate for negative aspects of the other relationship. Teacher conflict only predicted initial levels of behavioral engagement, whereas peer popularity did not predict behavioral engagement (not even in a subsample of children with relatively high levels of relational or physical aggression). However, cross-lagged panel mediation analyses revealed that children who were perceived as more popular in Grade 5 were less engaged in school in Grade 6. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.