Teacher Efficacy With Individual Students: Mediation of the Association Between Behavioral Engagement and Student-Teacher Relationships

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Impact of Early Childhood Teacher-Student Classroom Relationships

Abstract

Children’s behavioral engagement predicts the quality of student-teacher relationships in early schooling, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. We examined a novel aspect of teacher efficacy - teacher efficacy with individual students - as a mediating factor between behavioral engagement and closeness and conflict in student-teacher relationships, controlling for child sex and SES. A multivariate path model showed that behavioral engagement was positively associated with teacher efficacy with individual students, which in turn related positively to closeness and negatively to conflict. Bootstrapped confidence intervals revealed significant indirect effects on both closeness and conflict. Discussion highlights potential implications of variations in teachers’ efficacy across individual students on additional child outcomes.

Authors

• Ashley Lauren Firth Indorf, Arizona State University

• Tashia Abry, Arizona State University

• Larissa Michelle Gaias, Arizona State University