Temperament in early childhood and peer interactions in third grade: The role of teacher–child relationships in early elementary grades

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Abstract

Children's interactions with peers in early childhood have been consistently linked to their academic and social outcomes. Although both child and classroom characteristics have been implicated as contributors to children's success, there has been scant research linking child temperament, teacher–child relationship quality, and peer interactions in the same study. The purpose of this study is to examine children's early temperament, rated at preschool age, as a predictor of interactions with peers (i.e., aggression, relational aggression, victimization, and prosociality) in third grade while considering teacher–child relationship quality in kindergarten through second grades as a moderator and mediator of this association. The sample (N = 1364) was drawn from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Results from structural equation models indicated that teacher–child conflict in early elementary grades mediated links between children's temperament and later peer interactions. Findings underscore the importance of considering children's temperament traits and teacher–child relationship quality when examining the mechanisms of the development of peer interactions.

Introduction

Aspects of children's interactions with peers in early childhood have been consistently linked to their social and academic outcomes (Ladd et al., 1996, Ladd and Price, 1987, Rubin et al., 2006). Children with more positive peer interactions tend to enjoy school more and engage in more adaptive behaviors in school (e.g., volunteering to answer questions and working cooperatively with classmates) than children with more negative peer interactions. Through positive peer interactions, children appear more likely to gain a sense of belonging and security that promotes social and academic development (Rubin et al., 2006). Negative peer interactions (e.g., aggression and victimization), in contrast, may hinder social skill development and limit adaptive classroom engagement (Birch & Ladd, 1997). More aversive peer interactions have also been associated with greater loneliness (Coplan et al., 2007, Dunn et al., 2007), lower academic engagement and self-competence (Buhs, 2005), and lower levels of school liking (Birch and Ladd, 1997, Coplan et al., 2007). Children's relationships with teachers are another source of social support available to young children that are consistently associated with school adjustment (e.g., Hamre & Pianta, 2001) and linked to the quality of children's interactions with peers (e.g., Hughes and Chen, 2011, Mercer and DeRosier, 2008). The purpose of this study is to extend existing research examining children's early temperament as a predictor of interactions with peers in elementary school contexts by exploring the extent to which children's relationship quality with teachers in kindergarten through second grade moderates and mediates links to subsequent peer interactions.

Bioecological theory articulates multiple contexts of development (e.g., home and school), where children's consistent, bi-directional interactions (proximal processes) with people in those contexts pave the way for subsequent outcomes (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). The nature and quality of proximal processes are informed by both children's characteristics (e.g., temperament) and features of the environment (e.g., parent and teacher behavior); together, these result in adjustment or maladjustment in important developmental domains such as children's interactions with peers. However, teacher–child relationship quality as a feature of the classroom context by which child temperament and peer interactions are linked has rarely been examined (see Arbeau, Coplan, & Weeks, 2010 and Griggs, Gagnon, Huelsman, Kidder-Ashley, & Ballard, 2009). This area of inquiry is critical, as children spend a significant portion of the day in classrooms once they begin formal school.

Research points to links between children's temperament and their relationships and interactions with peers and teachers. For example, certain temperament characteristics (e.g., higher anger/frustration and activity and lower inhibitory control) have been negatively associated with children's prosocial behavior, peer acceptance (Sterry et al., 2010, Szewczyk-Sokolowski et al., 2005), and social competence (Rudasill & Konold, 2008). In addition, growing evidence indicates that children's temperament predicts teacher–child relationship quality such that more shyness (Rudasill, 2011, Rydell et al., 2005) and anger (Justice, Cottone, Mashburn, & Rimm-Kaufman, 2008) are associated with poorer quality. Similarly, a constellation of temperament characteristics indicative of difficulty with social interaction (higher anger/frustration, activity, and approach and lower inhibitory control) predicted teacher–child conflict in fourth through sixth grades (Rudasill, Reio, Stipanovic, & Taylor, 2010). Effortful control (i.e., higher levels of attention focusing and inhibitory control), on the other hand, has been associated with better teacher–child relationship quality (Rudasill and Rimm-Kaufman, 2009, Valiente et al., 2008).

Some studies have used a child by environment model to examine teacher–child relationship quality as a moderator of associations between child characteristics and social outcomes (Burchinal et al., 2002, Hamre and Pianta, 2001), and two studies have been specifically focused on teacher–child relationship quality as a moderator between temperament and children's social outcomes (Arbeau et al., 2010, Griggs et al., 2009). Arbeau et al. (2010) examined links between shyness and social adjustment (i.e., loneliness, school avoidance, and peer behavior) in first grade moderated by teacher–child relationship quality. Their findings suggested that more teacher–child closeness mitigated links between shyness and being anxious or asocial with peers. Griggs et al. (2009) investigated teacher–child relationship quality as a moderator between difficult temperament and peer play behavior in preschool and found that more difficult children's risk for disrupted play was attenuated when teacher–child conflict was low. These studies suggest that high-quality teacher–child relationships may buffer children with more aversive temperaments from having negative peer interactions; the current study extends this work by examining teacher–child relationship quality in early elementary grades as a moderator between difficult temperament and peer interactions in third grade.

There is also evidence supporting indirect connections between children's temperament and peer interactions via teacher–child relationship quality. Research in this area has linked classroom behavior problems with poor teacher–child relationship quality (Baker, 2006, Farmer et al., 2007, Henricsson and Rydell, 2004), teacher–child relationship quality with children's interactions with peers (Doumen et al., 2008, Farmer et al., 2011, Howes, 2000), and longitudinal cross-lagged associations between child behavior (e.g., aggression), peer interactions, and teacher–child relationships (Leflot et al., 2011, Mercer and DeRosier, 2008). In such contexts, children with characteristics that make building positive peer relationships more difficult may also struggle to form positive teacher–child relationships, likely further hindering positive interactions with peers and increasing the likelihood of aversive interactions. Thus, another goal of the current study is to further examine the extent to which teacher–child relationship quality may mediate associations between children's temperament and peer interactions.

Temperament is the nature of an individual's affect, behavior, and attention toward stimuli in the environment; it emerges from complex interactions between biology and environment (Shiner et al., 2012), and is multi-dimensional and developmentally dynamic (Kagan and Fox, 2006, Rothbart, 2011, Thomas and Chess, 1977). It refers to differences in reactivity and regulation representing the affective, activational, and attentional core of personality (cf. Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Reactivity refers to the intensity and dormancy of an individual's responses to the environment; children who are highly reactive have quicker, more intense responses to environmental stimuli (e.g., anger). For example, children who are higher in reactivity may become more easily frustrated and display that frustration forcefully (e.g., yelling and throwing things). They may also be overly excited about upcoming events, showing eager anticipation (e.g., approach). Regulation refers to an individual's ability to control reactions to environmental stimuli (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Children who are highly regulated are more likely to curb negative impulses (such as hitting) in exchange for behavior that is more appropriate for social interactions (such as talking). Reactivity and regulation are both complicit in children's behavior (Rothbart & Jones, 1998). For example, a child's natural tendency to show anger/frustration (reactivity) may be exacerbated by poor inhibitory control (regulation). Rothbart and Jones (1998) note that children with a combination of high reactivity and low regulation are “undercontrolled” and are likely to struggle in an academic setting. Of particular importance when considering children's interactions with peers are temperament dimensions that may impede successful social processes such as anger/frustration, activity level, and approach (for reactivity), and inhibitory control (for regulation). The combination of high anger/frustration, activity level, and approach, and low inhibitory control has been termed “difficult temperament” (cf. Rudasill et al., 2010), and this term is similar to the original conceptualization of difficult temperament put forth by Thomas and Chess (1977), although Thomas and Chess did not include a regulatory component.

Certain temperament characteristics (i.e., those indicative of high reactivity and low regulation) seem to put children at risk for the development of more negative interactions with peers (Eisenberg et al., 1995, Eisenberg et al., 1997, Walker et al., 2001). Low levels of inhibitory control and high levels of activity and anger/frustration, for example, may predispose children to more aggressive behavior (Sterry et al., 2010, Walker et al., 2001). This type of impulsive behavior and attendant aggression is typically undesirable in peer interactions and is a risk factor for social maladjustment (Gleason et al., 2005, Ladd and Burgess, 1999).

Children with temperamental qualities marked by low reactivity and moderate to high regulation (e.g., low activity level and high inhibitory control), in contrast, often engage in more social interactions and display interpersonal skills that promote socially desirable outcomes and more adaptive (e.g., prosocial) peer interactions (Corapci, 2008, Eisenberg and Fabes, 1992, Gleason et al., 2005, Rubin et al., 2002). In their investigation of reactive and regulatory temperament constructs and peer relationships, Goldsmith, Aksan, Esgender, Smider, and Vandell (2001) examined children's negative affectivity (i.e., sadness, anger, fearfulness, and shyness), positive affectivity (i.e., high activity and approach), and effortful control (i.e., inhibitory control and attentional focusing). They found that, when compared to children with lower levels of approach and effortful control, more approach-oriented children with higher levels of effortful control had more positive peer interactions (i.e., higher peer acceptance, lower peer rejection, and lower peer victimization). Overall, literature indicates that temperament characteristics indicative of lower reactivity and higher regulation may not only help children develop more positive peer interactions but also support children in developing interpersonal skills that facilitate the formation and maintenance of positive peer interactions across childhood and adolescence. Thus, we expect that children's temperament traits indicative of difficulty would be positively associated with aggression, relational aggression, and victimization in interactions with peers, and negatively associated with prosocial behavior with peers.

High-quality teacher–child relationships, marked by high closeness and low conflict, are those in which the child views the teacher as a secure base, and the teacher and child seem to be in tune with each other (Pianta, 1999). High-quality teacher–child relationships have frequently been linked to positive outcomes throughout preschool and elementary grades. Low quality teacher–child relationships, marked by low closeness and high conflict, are those where the child and teacher are discordant. Poor teacher–child relationships have been reliably associated with children's negative outcomes through elementary grades (e.g., Birch and Ladd, 1998, Hamre and Pianta, 2001, Pianta et al., 1995). Although the quality of teachers' relationships with children in early childhood is typically measured via teacher report, teacher–child relationship quality is predicated on both characteristics of the child and the teacher (O'Connor, 2010). Evidence for the role of child characteristics comes from longitudinal studies that have revealed variability between children and consistency within children in teacher–child relationship quality across teachers (O'Connor, 2010, Rudasill, 2011). Likewise, consistency within teachers' ratings of different children suggests that teacher characteristics also contribute to teacher–child relationship quality (Rudasill, Rimm-Kaufman, Justice, & Pence, 2006).

Research findings consistently connect teacher–child relationship quality to children's concurrent and subsequent interactions with peers (e.g., Howes, 2000, Hughes and Chen, 2011, Mercer and DeRosier, 2008, Palermo et al., 2007, Troop-Gordon and Kopp, 2011, Wentzel, 2002). Howes (2000), for example, found that teacher–child conflict in preschool was a significant and negative predictor of teacher-rated social competence with peers in second grade. Hughes and Chen (2011) found links between teacher–child relationship quality and peer status both concurrently and longitudinally from second through fourth grades. Leflot et al. (2011) examined bi-directional associations between peer social preference and teacher support in second graders and found that nominations of social preference in the fall of second grade predicted teacher-reported support at the end of the school year. Similarly, Mercer and DeRosier (2008), in a study of peer rejection, teacher preference, and child aggression across third and fourth grades, found that higher teacher preference at the beginning of third grade predicted lower peer rejection at the end of third grade and lower peer rejection at the end of third grade predicted higher teacher preference at the beginning of fourth grade. With older students, Wentzel (2002) found that teachers' negative feedback to sixth-grade students was linked to poorer peer interactions. Collectively, these findings support the contention that teacher–child relationships have important linkages to children's interactions with peers. The potential processes that may underlie these contributions have, however, been less thoroughly explored.

Applying a child by environment model, teacher–child relationship quality can be conceptualized as providing a contextual support, buoying a child's likelihood of engaging in positive peer interactions. In this conceptualization, teacher characteristics (e.g., motivations and personality) are the primary drivers of teacher–child relationship quality, and, as such, high-quality relationships may be available for children who present more challenging behavior (Griggs et al., 2009, Hughes et al., 1999). In this vein, some recent research attention has focused on a potential “invisible hand” in the classroom in the development of children's peer interactions (e.g., Farmer et al., 2011). The notion of the invisible hand is that peer interactions in school occur within classrooms where teachers shape the overall social ecology; teachers establish and enforce rules for interactions between children and facilitate opportunities for children to build social skills (Farmer et al., 2011). Teachers who tend to foster relationships that are low in conflict and high in closeness with their students may thus function as a source of support and resilience for children with difficult temperament. Thus, whereas difficult temperament places children at-risk for problematic peer interactions, teachers who tend to form closer, more positive relationships with children may attenuate this linkage (i.e., perform a moderating role), perhaps by providing a supportive social context for the development of more adaptive and less negative interactions (i.e., an “invisible hand” supporting more positive interactions). That is, previous experience with positive teacher–child relationships may facilitate positive peer interactions for children with difficult temperament. Szewczyk-Sokolowski et al. (2005; p. 391) posited that “relationship histories” may be most important for peer interactions of children with more difficult temperament. Indeed, emerging work suggests that high-quality teacher–child relationships may be particularly beneficial to children who are at-risk for social difficulties due to shyness (Arbeau et al., 2010) or difficult temperament (Griggs et al., 2009), and function as a source of support that may ameliorate or attenuate behavior problems across elementary grades (Maldonado-Carreño & Votruba-Drzal, 2011).

It also appears likely that previous teacher–child relationship quality may be a mechanism by which characteristics associated with difficult temperament are linked to poorer peer interactions. In this conceptualization, child characteristics are the primary drivers of teacher–child relationship quality, and the traits that cultivate poor relationships with teachers are reinforced and sustained in interactions with peers. Children with characteristics indicative of difficult temperament (such as low regulation) appear consistently more likely to have teacher–child relationships characterized by high conflict, low closeness, or both (Baker, 2006, Doumen et al., 2008, Henricsson and Rydell, 2004, Rudasill, 2011, Rudasill et al., 2010). Thus, it may be that difficult temperament negatively impacts teacher–child relationships, and these poor relationships provide suboptimal social experiences for children; in turn, these experiences inform children's interactions with others, such as peers. Over time, then, these less supportive relationships may facilitate negative patterns of interactions (Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000). On the other hand, high-quality teacher–child relationships may foster children's positive patterns of interactions. Given the idea of the invisible hand, it may be that the link from temperament to teacher–child relationship quality is one mechanism by which children with difficult temperament develop negative interaction patterns with peers (i.e., a mediating role).

In this study, we examined the potential moderating and mediating role of prior, cumulative teacher–child relationship quality (from kindergarten through second grade) on the association between early difficult temperament and peer interactions in third grade. We tested a moderating model in which we hypothesized that children with more difficult temperament, but who also had higher quality teacher–child relationships, would display better subsequent interactions with peers than similar children with lower quality teacher–child relationships. We also tested a mediating model in which we hypothesized that children with more difficult temperament would have poorer relationships with teachers and interactions with peers, and that the association between temperament and later peer interactions would be at least partly explained by teacher–child relationship quality.

Boys' and girls' peer interactions differ in important ways. Boys' peer interactions tend to occur in large social networks, whereas girls' interactions typically develop in smaller groups (Parker and Asher, 1993, Zarbatany et al., 2000). Boys and girls may also differ in the types of aggressive behaviors they tend to display. Some findings (though not all, see Salmivalli & Kaukiainen, 2004, for dissent) indicate that girls may engage in more relational aggression (behavior intended to damage relationships) than boys, whereas boys tend to engage in more overt aggression (hitting, pushing, etc.) than girls (e.g., Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). There is also evidence that girls in elementary school tend to be slightly more prosocial than boys (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). Taken together these factors suggest that examinations of links between temperament and peer interactions should control for potential gender effects and include gender as a moderator.

In testing links between temperament and social outcomes, it is also important to control for the primary caregiver's (typically mother's) educational background. Parents provide a number of supports for children's interactions at school (e.g., socialization of emotional mediators and emotional regulation strategies) that might be related to children's patterns of interactions (Parke & Buriel, 2006). The level of educational background, in particular, may be an indicator of how well the parents are able to support adaptive functioning in the school context (Pettit, Yu, Dodge, & Bates, 2009). Finally, it is important to account for earlier peer interactions in examinations of later peer interactions to better understand associations with intervening variables.

In the present study, peer interactions were measured in third grade because, by this grade level, children have typically established relatively consistent patterns of peer interactions and several years' experience with teacher–child relationships (Ladd, 1999). Teacher–child relationship quality was rated by kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade teachers because research suggests that these early relationships may impact children's academic and social trajectories (e.g., Hamre and Pianta, 2001, Howes, 2000, Ladd et al., 1999, Maldonado-Carreño and Votruba-Drzal, 2011). Third-grade teachers provided reports of children's interactions with peers for four reasons: (a) this point in middle childhood is when children have established relatively consistent patterns of peer interactions (Ladd, 1999), (b) third grade immediately succeeds the timeframe during which teacher–child relationship quality was assessed, (c) using third-grade teacher reports reduces the likelihood that the same teacher reported on teacher–child relationship quality and children's peer interactions, and (d) teachers are reliable raters of peer interactions when children are in primary grades (Ladd & Kochenderfer – Ladd, 2002).

We examined the following research questions:

  • (a)

    Do difficult temperament and early teacher–child relationship quality predict teacher ratings of the quality of children's peer interactions in third grade, after controlling for gender, primary caregiver educational attainment, and peer interactions at preschool age?

  • (b)

    Does early teacher–child relationship quality moderate the association between children's difficult temperament and children's peer interactions in third grade, after controlling for gender, primary caregiver educational attainment, and peer interactions at preschool age?

  • (c)

    Does early teacher–child relationship quality mediate the association between children's difficult temperament and children's peer interactions in third grade, after controlling for gender, primary caregiver educational attainment, and peer interactions at preschool age?

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were drawn from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD; Hamre and Pianta, 2001, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Early Child Care Research Network, 1993, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Early Child Care Research Network, 2002). The NICHD SECCYD began in 1991 when 8986 mothers who gave birth in hospitals at 10 sites across the United States (Little

Results

Means and standard deviations for all observed variables are displayed in Table 1. For Difficult Temperament, children's mean scores at preschool age (approximately 4 1/2 years) on each subscale were relatively high, considering a possible range of 1 to 7: Activity (M = 4.79), Anger/Frustration (M = 4.74), Approach (M = 5.21), and Inhibitory Control (M = 4.66). Scores for Conflict and Closeness in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade indicate that teachers generally rated their relationships with

Discussion

In this study, we examined teacher–child relationship quality in early elementary grades (kindergarten through 2nd grade) as a potential moderator and mediator of the relationships between children's early (preschool age) difficult temperament and third grade interactions with peers. Three primary findings emerged. First, children's difficult temperament was positively associated with teacher–child conflict (but unassociated with closeness). Second, teacher–child relationship quality did not

Conclusions

The present study adds to emerging research examining components of classroom context as moderators and mediators of associations between children's temperament and their school outcomes. The contextual component examined here was teacher–child relationship quality. Although there is ample evidence linking temperament traits and teacher–child relationships to academic and social outcomes, the findings presented here that teacher–child conflict mediated associations between difficult temperament

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      Therefore, these studies suggest that behavioral adjustment related to students' levels of reactivity or temperamental self-control may be fostered or hindered by STRQ (Liew et al., 2019). However, Rudasill et al. (2013) found no moderating effect of STRQ in the first school years on the association between a difficult temperament in kindergarten (Activity Level, Anger/Frustration, Approach, and Inhibitory Control) and externalizing BP (physical or relational) in third grade. Although this longitudinal study included only a few dimensions of temperament and of STRQ (Conflict and Closeness) and concerned externalizing BP only, it was particularly robust and exceeded several methodological limitations of previous studies.

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    This study was conducted by the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network supported by NICHD through a cooperative agreement that calls for scientific collaboration between the grantees and the NICHD staff.

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