Elsevier

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Volume 23, Issue 4, November–December 2002, Pages 451-470
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Early behavioral attributes and teachers' sensitivity as predictors of competent behavior in the kindergarten classroom

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(02)00128-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study examines the importance of early social boldness and wariness as attributes that predict children's behavior in kindergarten. Two questions are addressed: (1) Is there a relation between children's early behavioral style (social boldness and wariness) and their behavior in a kindergarten classroom? and (2) Does kindergarten teachers' sensitivity differentially affect the kindergarten behavior of socially bold and wary children? Ninety-seven children were selected from a sample of 253 as being socially bold (n=60) or socially wary (n=37) at 15 months of age. Children identified early as socially bold showed more off-task behavior and were more likely to talk and make requests of the teacher in large-group classroom settings. Socially bold children with more sensitive teachers showed more self-reliant behavior, fewer negative behaviors, and less time off-task compared to socially bold children with less sensitive teachers. There was no relation between teachers' sensitivity and child behavior for socially wary children. The results show that teachers' sensitive responses to children (particularly bold children) were associated with positive classroom adjustment for this group of children.

Introduction

Recent research on early school readiness has placed new emphasis on children's social and self-regulatory competencies in relation to school success (e.g., Blair, 2002, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, in preparation). Kindergarten teachers' reports show that almost half the children entering kindergarten showed some difficulty with adjustment; and that “difficulty following directions,” not academic competence, was the problem reported of greatest concern (Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000). Other survey data indicate that public school kindergarten teachers see children's social development and curiosity as more important indicators of kindergarten readiness than knowledge or discrete skills (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1993). Given this emphasis, it is important to understand what early childhood attributes relate to children's social competence and early school engagement. The present paper focuses on two such attributes, socially bold and wary behavioral styles, and their consequences for adjustment in kindergarten.

Socially bold and wary behavioral styles may be important factors that constrain and shape children's school experience. Although teachers may view bold behaviors positively and tend to rate bold children as adaptable Caldwell & Pullis, 1983, Mobley & Pullis, 1991, these children can be difficult to manage in the classroom. Bold children may show more difficulty redirecting their attention from one activity to another (Rothbart & Jones, 1998), and are more likely to speak out of turn (Rimm-Kaufman, 1996). A subset of bold children, those who are also impulsive, undercontrolled, and lack self-regulation skills, show difficulty conforming to school settings (Caspi & Silva, 1995), are more likely to have school performance problems (Nelson, Martin, Hodge, Havill, & Kamphaus, 1999), and may display externalizing behavior in social situations (Rubin, Coplan, Fox, & Calkins, 1995).

Socially wary children face a different set of challenges adjusting to the school environment, especially when the school environment is novel (such as in the beginning of the year) or, by design, socially challenging (such as requiring that the child talk in front of a group of children and/or adults). Teachers are more likely to underestimate the intelligence of wary children (Martin & Holbrook, 1985), teachers do not attend to them as much as their nonwary peers (Martin, Nagel, & Paget, 1983), and wary children are more likely to experience peer rejection and isolation (Rubin & Mills, 1988). Wary children may become overwhelmed in noisy, high-activity classrooms, and, as a result, may have more difficulty processing cognitive information (Rothbart & Jones, 1998). Furthermore, because learning sometimes involves taking risks, wary children who hesitate in social contexts may be less likely to take these risks, such as guessing the answer to a difficult problem (Martin, 1994) or talking in large-group situations (Rimm-Kaufman, 1996).

These findings suggest that socially bold and wary behavioral styles may be relevant to the emotional and social developmental goals and expectations of the typical American kindergarten classroom (e.g., National Center for Education Statistics, 1993, Pianta et al., 2002). Because the origins of these early individual differences may be temperamentally based, the temperament literature can help explain the ways these characteristics are salient for understanding classroom behavior.

Socially bold children are those children who approach unfamiliar people with little or no hesitation. They tend to dominate group activities and behave spontaneously Kagan, 1994, Kagan et al., 1998. The explanation for these strong approach tendencies varies; some children approach because of their strong and well-regulated approach motivations, whereas others approach novelty because of their inability to inhibit their impulsiveness (Henderson & Fox, 1998). In contrast, socially wary children withdraw from social situations with uncertain outcomes, avoid unfamiliar people, and hover on the periphery of activities, typically staring or playing alone in social situations (Kagan, 1994). Withdrawal tends to be the most extreme in situations that are novel, suggesting that wariness may be most evident during school activities of heightened social intensity such as large-group activities or “circle time.” The reasons for wary children's withdrawal may be diverse. For example, some socially wary children withdraw to avoid social interaction, others withdraw because of a disinterest in social interaction and others withdraw because of conflicting motivation concerning these exchanges (Asendorpf, 1989).

Socially wary and bold styles of interaction appear moderately stable over time and settings, particularly among children selected for extreme profiles (e.g., Calkins et al., 1996, Fox et al., 2001, Kagan et al., 1988, Rothbart et al., 1994). Moderate stability of these characteristics has been demonstrated throughout childhood (e.g., Asendorpf, 1991, Hart et al., 1997, Kerr et al., 1994, Rubin & Mills, 1988), and into adulthood (Newman, Caspi, Moffitt, & Silva, 1997). For example, children identified as fearful at 16 months showed less involvement with peers and fewer high-quality peer interactions at 40 months in both daycare and home environments than their more sociable counterparts (Broberg, Lamb, & Hwang, 1990). Children classified as inhibited (wary) in the laboratory during the first 2 years of life spent more time in kindergarten staring at peers, less time in social interactions with their peers (Gersten, 1986). Children identified as socially wary at 15 months were also more inhibited during the transition to kindergarten, according to their parents and teachers (Early et al., 2002). Further, socially bold children identified as uninhibited (bold) in the first 2 years of life showed more time talking and more frequent spontaneous comments in large-group, teacher-guided contexts than inhibited children (Rimm-Kaufman, 1996). Also, children identified as bold by their parents at 3.5 and 4.5 years were described by their teachers as showing more externalizing behavior in the kindergarten classroom (if they entered school with previously known friends) (Goldsmith, Aksan, Essex, Smider, & Vandell, 2001). Thus, these early attributes may help explain children's adjustment and engagement in school.

However, child attributes alone do not account for the range of differences between children in a classroom (Pianta et al., 2002). Bold and wary behavior styles, like other attributes of the child, may interact with qualities of the environments in which children are socialized. Although there is a growing literature that describes the relation between children's behavior attributes and their rearing environments for predicting social outcomes (e.g., Early et al., 2002, Fox et al., 2001, Rubin et al., 2002), there is very little work on the relation between these same behavioral styles and children's school environments predicting successful school adjustment.

Teacher sensitivity and responsiveness is a primary characteristic to be considered in order to understand the regulatory qualities of the classroom environment. Teachers' sensitivity in the classroom has been shown to relate to children's social competence and on-task behavior in the kindergarten classroom (Pianta et al., 2002). By definition, sensitive behavior is reflected as behavior that is consistent, positive, and warm toward children, and appropriately responsive to children's cues. If a child is inattentive, a sensitive teacher is more likely to re-engage the child in a manner that demonstrates awareness of the child's preferred learning style, mood, and activity preferences. In contrast, less sensitive behavior is marked by inconsistency, intrusiveness, detachment, and poorly timed responses to children's cues (Pianta, 1999).

It has been demonstrated that sensitive teachers are more likely to help children direct attention appropriately, are better at assisting children's development of autonomous classroom behaviors, and are more skilled at reducing children's aggression Birch & Ladd, 1997, Denham & Burton, 1996. Further, a teacher who behaves sensitively may be better at developing implicit classroom structures conducive to children's social growth and development (Pianta, 1999). For example, teachers who create less aggressive classroom environments facilitate long-term reductions in children's aggressive behavior, particularly for boys with a propensity toward aggression (Kellam, Ling, Merisca, Brown, & Ialongo, 1998).

We hypothesize that a teacher's sensitivity may have different implications for socially bold and wary children. Teachers who are sensitive to the needs of socially wary children may orchestrate classroom activities to help socially wary children overcome anxiety and participate freely in the classroom. For example, such a teacher may pair the child with a friend rather than a less familiar peer for a group activity. Likewise, teachers who are sensitive to the needs of bold children may help them conform to classroom norms without resorting to punishment, leading to a reduction of bothersome behaviors such as aggression toward peers and off-task behaviors. For example, a teacher may “check in” frequently with a bold child working in a group in order to facilitate his or her productivity and keep him or her on task. In these ways, children's relationships with teachers provide a resource for the child in the classroom, and such support may foster children's development of competent classroom behavior.

The present study addresses two questions about wary and bold social behavioral styles in school settings. First, is there a relation between early behavioral style (social boldness and wariness) and later classroom behavior? To assess this, we selected classroom behavioral outcomes that reflect appropriate adjustment and self-regulation, are central to school success in kindergarten (NCES, 1993), and are reflective of the range of contexts that children experience within a classroom. For instance, children who are self-reliant, show few negative behaviors toward their peers, display positive affect, and spend less time off task are more likely to exhibit behaviors that enhance classroom learning Ladd et al., 1999, Swartz & Walker, 1984. Further, children spend time in different activity groups during the school day (large and small groups, and one-on-one with the teacher, for example). We expect more reticent behavior (less talking and fewer requests of the teacher) among wary children in large-group contexts (but not small group and one-on-one contexts) because, by definition, these children hesitate in situations that produce social uncertainty.

Second, we examined whether socially bold and wary children responded differentially to sensitive teacher behavior. We expected that competent and adaptive classroom behavior (high self-reliance, few negative behaviors and off-task behaviors) of socially wary and bold children would be differentially related to sensitive teacher behavior.

Section snippets

Participants

Two hundred thirty-five children (age 15 months; 28 African-American, 203 White, and 4 others) participated in the present study. Using procedures described below, 37 and 60 children were identified as wary and bold, respectively, from the total of 235 children. The data come from a subset of families participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, a comprehensive, observationally based study of key developmental contexts and outcomes from birth to age 5 (see NICHD Early Child Care

Behavior across all classroom situations

As a preliminary analysis, t tests were computed to compare the kindergarten behavior of children identified as socially bold or wary at 15 months of age (see Table 2). Socially bold children exhibited more off-task behavior than wary children. In contradiction with the stated hypothesis, socially bold children complied with teacher requests more frequently than wary children. There were no differences between bold and wary children on the other variables.

To understand the surprising finding

Discussion

Two findings emerge from the present study. First, children's early behavioral styles relate to their social behaviors in kindergarten. Specifically, bold children show more off-task behavior across classroom contexts and talk more than wary children in whole class situations. More importantly, however, is that socially bold children whose teachers are more sensitive showed more self-reliant behavior, fewer negative behaviors, and less time off task compared to socially bold children with less

Acknowledgements

The work reported herein was supported under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program, PR/Award Number R307A60004, as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, or the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume

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