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Poster #175 - Teacher and Peer Support: Moderators Between Disorganization in the Home and Military-Connected Students’ Academic Engagement

Sat, March 23, 9:45 to 11:00am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Military families experience unique stressors that place children at risk for negative academic outcomes (Card et al., 2011; Lyle, 2006). Supportive relationships with peers and teachers could function as a protective factor (Gutman et al., 2002), especially in the face of family stress and disorganization in the home (Gewirtz et al., 2018). This has not been studied in the context of military families, due perhaps to the challenges of recruiting military families into research projects (Gewirtz et al., 2014). This study examined whether support from peers and teachers moderates the association between disorganization in the home and military-connected children’s academic engagement.

Method

Participants were recruited from four elementary schools near Olympia, WA. Data were gathered from military-connected students (n = 52), their parents (n = 50), and their teachers (n = 25). Students (boys, 48%; girls, 52) were in grades 2-5, and 75.6% of parents had a partner who was active-duty military, and 13.3% were active-duty military themselves.

Peer connectedness was assessed via the peer subscale of the Hemingway Measure of Childhood Connections (Karcher & Sass, 2010) and teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) was assessed via the Teacher Relationships Inventory (Hughes & Chen, 2011). Parents reported on disorganization in the home (CHAOS; Matheny et al., 1995), and teachers reported on children’s academic engagement (Skinner et al., 2008).

Results

Bivariate correlations among study variables are shown in Table 1. Academic engagement was regressed onto CHAOS scores and teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ), followed by the interaction of these two variables. The first step (CHAOS, TSRQ) was significant and accounted for 51% of the variance, F(2, 42) = 21.69, p = < .001. TSRQ was the only significant predictor variable, (B = .69, p < .001). The interaction term (CHAOS X TSRQ) was not significant, F(1, 41) = .009, p = .926.

As a set, CHAOS scores and peer connectedness accounted for 4% of the variance in academic engagement, which was not significant given the small sample size, F(2, 42) = 0.038, p = .441. The interaction of CHAOS scores and peer connectedness accounted for an additional 14% of variance, F (1, 41) = 7.20, p = .010 (Figure 1). CHAOS scores were negatively associated with academic engagement, but this association was strongest for children with high peer connectedness (B+1SD = -2.08) and lowest for children with average levels of peer connectedness (BM = -.20).

Discussion

Level of disorganization in the home did not directly predict academic engagement for military-connected students. However, TSRQ was a strong, positive predictor of academic engagement, and we found no evidence that TSRQ moderated this association. However, children’s peer connectedness was a significant moderator of the association between home disorganization and academic engagement. Results ran contrary to expectations and suggested that for military children who reported high levels of peer connectedness, home disorganization was particularly disruptive of academic engagement. Perhaps, for military-connected children, social connections function as an appealing and potentially distracting way to cope with the strain of stress related to school and home.

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