Classroom Emotional Support Moderates the Relationship Between Language Skills And Behavior Problems In Preschool Children

• In Event: 3-176 - Classrooms as Complex Ecologies: Relations between Teacher Behavior and Children’s Language, Behavior and Literacy

Integrative Statement

Young children from low-income families are at increased risk for developing language difficulties (Qi, Kaiser, & Milan, 2006), problem behavior (Burchinal, Peisner-Feinberg, Bryant, & Clifford, 2000), and poor literacy skills. Although lower language ability is associated with behavior problems (Bornstein, Hahn, & Suwalsky, 2013), little is known about what mechanism underlies this association. Sameroff’s (2009) transactional models of development and the bioecological systems (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) provide a theoretical framework for understanding the complex relations between children’s language skills, classroom quality, and behavior problems, particularly among children from low-income families. The purpose of this study was to determine whether classroom quality served as a moderator of relations between language skills and behavior problems among preschool children enrolled in Head Start programs. Specific research questions were as follows:
1. What were the effects of language skills on teacher- and parent-reported behavior problems?
2. Did classroom quality moderate the relationship between language skills and teacher- or parent-reported behavior problems?
Methods
Participants (47.9% female, Mage = 43.49 months, age range: 36 to 54 months) were drawn from a larger sample of children participating in a longitudinal study examining potential moderating roles of classroom quality on the relations between early language and behavior problems. A total of 237 participants were recruited from 41 classrooms in 14 Head Start centers in a midsize city in the southwest of the US. The Preschool Language Scale-5 was administered individually to each participating child. Observations of the classroom quality including emotional support, instructional support, and classroom organization were conducted using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Teachers and parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist.
Results
Results indicated the inverse concurrent relations between language skills and behavior problems varied by the CLASS Emotional Support. Specifically, children with lower language skills exhibited higher levels of teacher-reported behavior problems in classrooms where teachers provided lower levels of emotional support than did those who received higher levels of emotional support from teachers, β = 0.27, p = .016. Using the Johnson-Neyman technique, we found a significant inverse relationship between language ability and behavior problems for children in classrooms with an emotional support score below 6.04 (or 0.49 when mean was centered) with a 95% confidence band (see Figure 2). The relationship between language skills and teacher-reported behavior problems was not statistically significant for children in classrooms with emotional support higher than this score. Similar results were found for parent-reported behavior problems, indicating that there was a statistically significant interaction between language skills and emotional support, β = 0.37, p =.006. Probing with the Johnson-Neyman technique showed that this relationship was significant for children in classrooms with emotional support scores below 5.72 (or 0.15 when mean centered), but not for those in classrooms with emotional support scores above this threshold (Figure 3).
Findings from this study have important implications for enhancing teachers’ emotional support aimed at children with lower language skills.

Authors

• Cathy Huaqing Qi, University of New Mexico
  Presenting Author

• Almut Zieher, University of New Mexico
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lee van Horn, University of New Mexico
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca Bulotsky-Shearer, University of Miami
  Non-Presenting Author

• Judith Carta, University of Kansas
  Non-Presenting Author