Interrelations Between Distinct Forms of Peer Experiences and Classroom Behavioral Engagement in Early School Years

• In Event: Teacher-Student and Peer Relationships as Learning Contexts

Abstract

Promoting classroom behavioral engagement has been recognized as a valuable avenue to encourage students’ educational success (Lei et al., 2018). In addition, a child’s level of behavioral engagement has been shown to modulate how classmates respond to and treat this child (Skinner & Pitzer, 2012), so that behaviorally engaged children may also be more socially adjusted. Importantly, evidence showed that classroom behavioral engagement takes root from the first years of schooling and suggest that early learning-related behaviors, such as active participation and positive conduct, can be influenced (Lawson & Lawson, 2013).

Most studies that have examined early behavioral engagement focus on the contribution of adults. However, relationships with peers can create a favorable context for learning attention and emotion regulation. Close friendships have been associated with higher levels of behavioral engagement in preschool and elementary school (Ladd et al., 1996; Valiente et al., 2008). Acceptance by the peer group may also be useful for children in gaining access to instrumental help from their peers and, therefore, offer significant assistance that promotes engagement. These two forms of peer experiences could contribute independently and concurrently to behavioral engagement. However, they could also conspire sequentially such that one form of peer experience serves as a stepping stone to the other type of experience to indirectly contribute to behavioral engagement. Unfortunately, past studies focused on one type of experience at a time, either peer-group acceptance or friendship. Moreover, past studies examined unidirectional associations between behavioral engagement and peer experiences and omitted the possibility for feedback links between behavioral engagement and either peer acceptance or mutual friendships. Paying more attention to the interplay between distinct forms of peer experiences and their possible reciprocal links with behavioral engagement may help clarify the pattern of these associations over time and identify relevant intervention targets.

Therefore, our aim was to examine: (a) the role of two experiences, peer acceptance and mutual friendships, regarding the development of classroom behavioral engagement from Kindergarten to Grade 2; (b) how these experiences were related to each other, and (c) how children’s behavioral engagement contributed to these experiences during this period. Child disruptiveness, sex, and family income were included as control variables. The sample included 638 children assessed through teacher, peer and child ratings. Reciprocal associations between friendships, peer acceptance, and engagement were found, but not consistently over time. Cross-lag analyses revealed that higher levels of engagement predicted increases in peer-group acceptance from the beginning of Kindergarten to Grade 2, and in mutual friendships from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Results also showed an indirect effect of peer acceptance in Kindergarten on behavioral engagement in Grade 1 through an increase in the number of mutual friendships by the end of Kindergarten. Following a sequential pattern, this suggests that being liked by peers as early as Kindergarten may play a role in the development of children’s behavioral engagement over time, since it seems to foster investment in mutual friendships during the transition to formal schooling. Implications for future studies will be discussed.

Authors

• Marie-Claude Salvas, University of Quebec in Outaouais
  Presenting Author

• Isabelle Archambault, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Frank Vitaro, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephane Cantin, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christelle Robert-Mazaye, University of Quebec in Outaouais
  Non-Presenting Author

• Fanny-Alexandra Guimond, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie Goulet, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author