Examining Children’s Individualized Peer Engagement in Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms: Relations with Classroom-Level Teacher-Child Interaction Quality

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Positive peer engagement is a key aspect of social-behavioral development, encompassing children’s communication, sociability, and assertiveness in peer interactions. Children’s competent peer engagement in pre-kindergarten (PreK) classrooms is linked to multiple positive outcomes (Downer & Pianta, 2006; Elias & Berk, 2002; Fantuzzo et al., 2004; Howes, 2010). With appropriate support, PreK classrooms are potentially fruitful contexts for children to hone their ability to initiate and sustain positive peer interactions. From an attachment perspective, PreK teachers can support competent peer engagement by providing a secure base for children to explore peer relationships (Howes, 2010) and by creating a classroom community that values and supports peer engagement (Howes & Ritchie, 2002). However, high levels of positive peer engagement are not evident in all classrooms (Howes et al., 2008; Howes & Wishard, 2004; Howes et al., 2011), and questions remain concerning whether and how classroom-level teacher-child interactions confer some benefit to individual children’s experiences with their classroom peers (Curby et al., 2014). Therefore, the current study examines the extent to which PreK classroom-level teacher-child interactions are associated with children’s individualized peer engagement.

The analytic sample comprised 714 PreK-age children (M = 4.13 years, SD = 0.5 years; 359 girls; 355 boys) attending 214 Head Start and community-based PreK classrooms. We measured children’s individualized positive peer engagement across two days using the inCLASS observation system, reflecting three latent constructs: communication, sociability, and assertiveness (Downer et al., 2010). We simultaneously measured classroom-level teacher-child interactions using the CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008), reflecting three latent factors: responsive teaching, cognitive facilitation, and management and routines.

To account for the nested data structure (i.e., children nested within classrooms), we used multilevel modeling to examine associations between classroom-level teacher-child interactions and children’s individualized peer engagement. Specifically, using Mplus version 7, we estimated two sets of multilevel models: one representing each child’s average peer engagement across observation cycles and one representing each child’s potential peer engagement, using the highest scored cycle. Within each set, we fit three separate models corresponding to the latent peer engagement constructs of communication, sociability, and assertiveness.

Several key findings emerged (See Tables 1 and 2.). First, observed levels of average peer engagement were low overall, whereas potential peer engagement levels were slightly higher. Second, in classrooms with higher levels of responsive teaching practices, individual children exhibited greater average levels and potential for peer sociability and assertiveness, but not communication. Third, in classrooms with higher levels of cognitive stimulation, individual children displayed higher average levels of positive peer engagement across measured dimensions (communication, sociability, assertiveness), and greater potential for peer communication. Finally, in classrooms with more effective management and routines, individual children displayed lower average levels and potential for peer sociability and assertiveness, but not communication. Findings suggest that specific facets of classroom-level teacher-child interactions may have differential potential to support children’s positive experiences with peers, and hence their social-behavioral development and school success.

Authors

• Michelle Taylor, California State University - Long Beach
  Presenting Author

• Pilar Alamos, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Locasale-Crouch, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Khara Lynn Pence Turnbull, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author