Social-Emotional Profiles of Students With Disabilities and Their Association With Teacher-Student Relationships

• In Event: Social-Emotional Development and Behavioral Responses

Abstract

Social-emotional skills are imperative for children’s success in kindergarten; however, children with disabilities may experience greater social-emotional challenges that negatively impact their relationships with educators. We explore how kindergarten teachers perceive the social-emotional skills of students with disabilities and how these perceptions relate to children’s demographic characteristics and student-teacher relationship quality. Using the ECLS-K dataset, we conducted a latent profile analysis to group kindergarten children with disabilities based on their social-emotional competencies and examined the bivariate association between profile membership and students’ demographic characteristics. Preliminary results indicate a four-profile solution, and children’s gender and race were significantly associated with profile membership. These findings indicate children with disabilities may differentially experience classrooms, suggesting the need for intervention in teacher professional development.

Authors

• Melissa Stoffers, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Cara L. Kelly, University of Oklahoma

• Joon-Ho Lee, University of Alabama

• Alison Hooper, University of Alabama

• Gerilyn Slicker, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Anamarie Auger Whitaker, University of Delaware