Teachers' Psychological Health and Relationships With Students Support Positive Engagement With Students in the Classroom

• In Event: The Influences of Teachers’ Psychological Characteristics on Young Students’ Classroom Experiences and Outcomes

Abstract

Children who are able to positively engage with their teachers in the early years of schooling demonstrate better social and academic skills (Allen et al., 2013). Pianta (1999) has described the ways in which positive engagement with teachers develops over time as a function of characteristics of both teachers and children, as well as the ways in which they perceive and interact with one another. Prior research suggests that teachers’ psychological health is important to the development of positive teacher-child relationships (Whitaker, Dearth-Wesley, & Gooze, 2015). However, most of this work has relied on teacher reports of relationships. In this study we examine the ways in which teachers’ psychological health and perceptions of their relationships with preschool children contribute to observations of the quality of positive engagement among teachers and children in the classroom.
The sample includes 43 preschool teachers and 126 children in their classrooms. Most teachers were female (97.7%) and 83.7% were White, 9.3% Black, 2.3% Hispanic, and 2.3% Multiracial. The children in this sample were on average 4.22 years old (SD = .62) at the beginning of the year. Approximately half (47.4%) of the children were male and they were ethnically diverse: 71.1% of children were White, 20.2% Black, 11.4% Hispanic, and 6.1% Asian. Teacher well-being (Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale, short form [Ryff & Keyes, 1995]), emotional exhaustion (Maslach Burnout Inventory–Educators Survey [Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996]), and student-teacher closeness and conflict (Student Teacher Relationship Scale-Short Form [STRS; Pianta, 2001]) were captured in teacher-reported surveys administered in the winter. Children’s positive engagement with teachers was captured using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS; Downer, Booren, Lima, Luckner, & Pianta, 2010), an observational assessment of individual children’s classroom engagement.
Results from path analysis (Table 1) suggest that children whose teachers reported more positive well-being in the winter were observed to have more positive engagement with teachers in the spring (β = 0.37, p < .001). Children whose teachers reported higher levels of teacher-child closeness in the winter were observed to have more positive engagement with teachers in the spring (β = 0.25, p = .002). Contrary to hypotheses, children whose teachers reported higher levels of teacher-child conflict in the winter were also observed to have more positive engagement with teachers in the spring (β = 0.20, p = .01). The association between well-being and engagement was moderated by teachers’ reports of the quality of their relationships with students. Well-being was a stronger predictor of engagement for children with whom the teacher reported a positive relationship. Emotional exhaustion was associated with lower levels of observed engagement for children who had conflictual relationships with teachers (Figure 1). Results of this study have important implications for the training and support of teachers, particularly given the high rates of depression and stress reported by teachers working in early childhood settings (e.g., Whitaker et al., 2013).

Authors

• Bridget Kathleen Hamre, University of Virginia

• Shannon Reilly

• Amy Roberts, Buffett Early Childhood Institute