Poster #40 - Exploring the Pathways through which Teachers Support Changes in Students’ Academic Coping across the School Year

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

When children and youth encounter difficulties in their academic work, they can cope in a variety of ways, from redoubling their efforts to blaming others for their problems. Mounting evidence suggests that such coping is important to students’ academic development, including their engagement, tenacity, and learning. As a result, researchers are interested in the factors that allow children and adolescents to cope more productively. Although coping is often considered an individual affair, studies suggest that interpersonal resources, like support from teachers, can also play an important role in how children and youth cope in the classroom. Although about a dozen studies show links between teacher support and student academic coping (Skinner & Saxton, 2019), these studies have proven difficult to integrate because they consider a variety of kinds of teacher supports (e.g., emotional, academic) and look at many different individual ways of coping (e.g., problem-solving, escape). Moreover, few examine teacher support as a predictor of changes in coping over time or explore the mediators through which teacher supports have their effects on academic coping.

Guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the current investigation of 1,020 students in grades three through six: (1) targeted key motivational supports teachers can provide, (2) examined teacher supports as predictors of change in academic coping across the school year; and (3) tested three self-system processes as potential pathways through which such supports shape changes in coping (see Figure 1). More specifically, the study utilized information from students on their experiences of their teachers’ provisions of involvement (e.g., affection, availability), structure (e.g., clear expectations, dependability), and autonomy support (e.g., choice, relevance); these were combined to form an indicator of teacher motivational support. Students also reported on three self-system processes posited by SDT to reflect fundamental psychological needs: perceived competence (efficacy), sense of relatedness to teachers (feelings of acceptance), and autonomy orientations (relative autonomy of reasons for engaging in schoolwork). Finally, students rated multiple dimensions of academic coping, which were combined into an overall profile of constructive (vs. unproductive) ways of coping.

As expected, all variables were significantly and positively correlated with each other at both time points (see Table 1). However, moderate correlations among the self-system processes suggested that they might not all act as unique mediators; and the cross-time correlation for coping was relatively high, indicating that it might be difficult to predict change across time. Results of the path analysis, testing the model pictured in Figure 1, showed adequate model fit (CFI = .944, SRMR = .58), largely supporting hypotheses. Despite high cross-time stability, initial teacher motivational support predicted changes in coping across the school year. These effects were fully mediated by students’ self-system processes in spring, with each self-system making its own unique contribution to changes in coping. These findings bring together information on intrapersonal and interpersonal motivational resources for coping, and begin to provide an explanation for the pathways through which teacher support shapes the development of academic coping in children and youth. Implications for future research and teacher practices are discussed.

Authors

• Kristen Raine, Portland State University
  Presenting Author

• Kristina Tucker

• Ellen A Skinner, Portland State University