3-020 - Child Development in the School Context: Origins and Consequences of Teacher and Parental Influence

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Ecological systems theory (EST) emphasizes that a comprehensive examination of child development requires consideration of diverse contexts and their interplay. Despite EST being introduced by Bronfenbrenner (1979) nearly forty years ago, the field of developmental psychology has been largely focused on only a few, albeit crucial, interpersonal contexts (i.e., parent and peer relationships). Adoption of and progress in EST, however, requires consideration of a wider variety of environments as well as their overlap and interaction (Neal & Neal, 2013). The present symposium considers one such understudied context—the school—and its overlap with more commonly-studied interpersonal influences. Children between the ages of 6 and 12 spend the majority of their waking time in classrooms (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001), making the influence of relationships in the schools, especially in the primary grades, particularly important to understand.

More specifically, the four papers in this symposium together consider how experiences within the school environment are informed by parents (Papers 1, 2, 3) and teachers (Papers 2, 4) to support the healthy development of children over the course of their schooling. Furthermore, we showcase a variety of sophisticated methodological approaches, including the use of large, longitudinal samples (Papers 1, 2), meta-analysis (Paper 3), and intervention (Paper 4). These papers together represent important contributions to and progress in EST-informed research focused on the school as an important developmental context for children.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chairs

• Sophia W Magro, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

• Glenn Roisman, University of Minnesota

Individual Presentations

• Early Maternal Sensitivity and the Quality of Teacher-Student Relationships Across Grade School - Presenting Author: Sophia W Magro, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Chris Fraley, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Non-Presenting Author: Glenn Roisman, University of Minnesota

• The role of elementary school and home quality in the persistence of pre-kindergarten quality effects - Presenting Author: Jinjoo Han, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Erin O'Connor, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Meghan McCormick, MDRC

• The Relation of Parents’ Involvement in Children’s Learning to Children’s Adjustment: A Quantitative Synthesis - Presenting Author: Michael M. Barger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Moorman Kim, Emory University; Non-Presenting Author: Nathan Kuncel, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Eva Pomerantz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Teachers’ instructional interaction mediates effects of targeted feedback on students’ school readiness skills - Presenting Author: Bob Pianta, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Erik Ruzek, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel Lipscomb, University of Virginia