Poster #233 - Unsociability, Teacher–Child Relationships, and School Social Behaviors in Turkish Preschool Children

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Unsociability is a subtype of social withdrawal arising from a child’s preference for playing alone. Coplan and Weeks (2010) have defined unsociability in childhood as the expression of individual differences in the preference for solitude and solitary activities. It differs from another types of social withdrawal, shyness, in terms of social fear/anxiety. Compared to shyness, unsociability appears to be a relatively ‘benign’ form of social withdrawal, particularly in early childhood, where it has been largely unassociated with indices of socio-emotional functioning (Coplan et al., 2004; Coplan & Weeks, 2010; Harrist, Zaia, Bates, Dodge, & Pettit, 1997). Although it is not related to social-emotional functioning, unsociable children are also socially disconnected from the peer group. They would less likely be influenced by the social behaviors of others in preschool. In this case, the quality of the relationship between a teacher and unsocial children plays an important role for opening a communication channel between them. Teacher’s relationship with unsociable children might impact social behavior in preschool such as interpersonal skills, self-management and academic skills. In the literature, there has been a considerable amount of research on shy children and the relationship between these children and their teachers, but relatively little attention paid to unsociability (Arbeau, Coplan & Weeks, 2010; Coplan & Weeks, 2010; Rubin et al., 2009).

The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of the quality of the relationship between children and teachers (i.e., closeness and conflict) in association with children’s unsociability scores and their social behaviors (i.e., interpersonal skills, self-management and academic skills). We hypothesized that whether the relationship between teachers and children moderates the relationship between them with respect to unsociability and their social behaviors. Participants were 211 three to six-year-old children (M= 60.3 months, SD = 2.26, 94 girls, 117 boys). Mothers reported their unsociability; teachers reported teacher-child relationships and their school social behaviors. All analyses were conducted using R and moderating effects were tested using path analysis.

The interactions between unsociability and teacher-child relationships have been found to be significant in predicting teacher-reported interpersonal skills, self-management and academic skills. The models revealed significant two-way interactions between the categorical independent variable teacher closeness (i.e., 0 : low and 1: high) and the standardized continuous independent variable unsociability in predicting three standardized continuous outcomes: interpersonal skills, self-management, and academic skills. Based on the interaction plots, for example, increasing the values of unsociability results in reducing the academic skills for both children with low and high teacher closeness. The academic skills of the children with low teacher closeness are more influenced by increasing values of unsociability scores when compared to that of the children with high teacher closeness. Notably, this situation happens for the other two outcomes as well, namely, for the outcomes interpersonal skills and self-management (see Figure 1). These findings suggest that close teacher–child relationships appeared to be a positive moderator (i.e., buffering process) of unsociable children’s school behaviors. Thus, this moderating effect should be considered to improve the intervene programs for social withdrawn children.

Authors

• Ozge Metin Aslan, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University
  Presenting Author

• Irem Akçam Yalçın, Hacettepe University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Menekse Boz, Hacettepe University
  Non-Presenting Author