Classroom dimensions predict early peer interaction when children are diverse in ethnicity, race, and home language

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.02.004Get rights and content

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test a model for predicting preschool-age children's behaviors with peers from dimensions of the classroom and teacher–child relationship quality when the children were from diverse race, ethnic, and home language backgrounds. Eight hundred children, (M = age 63 months, SD = 8.1 months), part of the National Evaluation of Early Head Start, participated in this study just prior to entering kindergarten. We observed children with peers in their classrooms and rated classroom peer group size, affective climate for peer interaction, teacher management of the classroom, and materials for dramatic play. Teachers reported on teacher–child relationship quality. Children from Spanish-speaking homes played similarly in classrooms where Spanish was and was not spoken. After control variables and receptive vocabulary scores were entered into the model, classroom dimensions and teacher–child relationship quality significantly predicted pretend play, anxious-withdrawn, aggressive, and victim of peer aggression behaviors with peers. Children engaged in more pretend play and received lower ratings of being the victim of peer aggression when classroom groups were smaller. When teachers perceived teacher–child relationships as lower in conflict and higher in closeness, children's anxious-withdrawn, aggressive, and victim of aggression ratings were lower. Children's ratings of being the victim of peer aggression were higher when ratings of classroom positive peer climate were lower. Child–teacher ethnic or racial match did not moderate these predictions.

Highlights

► Children from Spanish-speaking homes played similarly in classrooms where Spanish was and was not spoken. ► After control variables and receptive vocabulary scores were entered into the model, classroom dimensions and teacher-child relationship quality significantly predicted pretend play, anxious-withdrawn, aggressive, and victim of peer aggression behaviors with peers. ► Child–teacher ethnic or racial match did not moderate these predictions.

Section snippets

Cultural community and teacher–child shared ethnic, racial, or home language background

A cultural community is defined as a grouping of people who share goals, beliefs, and everyday practices, and often a racial or ethnic identity (Rogoff, 2003). An assumption of Rogoff's theory is that children and adults who participate in the same cultural community develop similar social interaction forms and styles through joint participation in common activities, and that interaction forms and styles differ between cultural communities.

When the practices of teachers are very different from

Sample description

Children and mothers. Longitudinal data for this study were drawn from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (ACYF NEHSREP, 2006, Love et al., 2002), which includes a sample of racially and ethnically diverse low-income families with young children (birth through ages 4–5). The NEHSREP is a prospective, national evaluation study of 17 Early Head Start (EHS) program sites. Program selection was conducted by the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) branch

Children's behaviors with peers

Descriptive information on children's individual behaviors with peers is in Table 1. Pretend play was fairly infrequent; on average, children engaged in pretend less than 10% of the observation period. Thirteen percent of the children were not observed to play pretend, while 2% of the children spent the entire observation playing pretend. On average, children were rated as relatively low in anxious-withdrawn behavior, average in sociability, and relatively low in aggressive behavior and being

Discussion

Our findings add to a rich literature that predicts that behaviors with peers in preschool classrooms can be predicted from classroom dimensions, particularly the affective climate of the classroom (Fabes et al., 2003). Likewise, our findings that a positive influence of close rather than conflictual teacher–child relationships predict children's behaviors with peers are consistent with prior work on the importance of teacher–child relationships for early peer behaviors (Howes & Spieker, 2008).

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    The findings reported here are based on research conducted as part of the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Task Order No. 32, Contract 282-98-0021, to Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Princeton, NJ, and grants for data collection with 15 university research partners. Research institutions in the Consortium (and principal researchers) include: ACF (Rachel Chazan Cohen, Judith Jerald, Esther Kresh, and Helen Raikes); Catholic University of America (Michaela Farber, Harriet Liebow, Nancy Taylor, Elizabeth Timberlake, and Shavaun Wall); Columbia University (Christy Brady-Smith, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Rebecca C. Fauth); Harvard University (Catherine Ayoub, Barbara Alexander Pan, and Catherine Snow); Iowa State University (Gayle Luze and Carla Peterson); Mathematica Policy Research (Kimberly Boller, Cheryl DeSaw, Ellen Eliason Kisker, John M. Love, Welmoet van Kammen, and Cheri Vogel); Medical University of South Carolina (Richard A. Faldowski and Gui-Young Hong); Michigan State University (Holly Brophy-Herb, Hiram Fitzgerald, and Rachel Schiffman); New York University (Mark Spellmann and Catherine Tamis-LeMonda); NPC Research (Beth Green); University of Arkansas (Robert Bradley, Andrea Hart, Mark Swanson, and Leanne Whiteside-Mansell); University of California, Los Angeles (Carollee Howes and Alison Wishard Guerra); University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Robert Emde, Kevin Everhart, Mary Maguire Klute, Jon Korfmacher, Jini Puma, JoAnn Robinson, Jeffrey Shears, and Norman Watt); University of Kansas (Jane Atwater, Judith Carta, and Jean Ann Summers); University of Missouri-Columbia (Mark Fine, Jean Ispa, and Kathy Thornburg); University of Pittsburgh (Carol McAllister); University of Washington School of Education (Eduardo Armijo and Joseph Stowitschek); University of Washington School of Nursing (Kathryn Barnard and Susan Spieker); Utah State University (Gina Cook and Lori Roggman). The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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