Despite recent growth in research highlighting the potential of teacher-child relationships to promote childrens development, important questions remain about the stability and relevance of relationships between teachers and children beyond the early school years. By incorporating results from two related, longitudinal studies using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (NICHD SECC, 1993), this investigation answer nuanced questions about the developmental pattern of teacher-child relationships and their association with childrens development across elementary school.
The first study identifies distinctive developmental trajectories of teacher-child relationship quality from kindergarten through 5th grade, using a semiparametric group-based approach (Nagin, 2005). In addition, it tests whether child and family characteristics are linked to particular relationship trajectory groups. The second study examines longitudinal connections between teacher-child relationships and childrens development throughout elementary school. Using two-level hierarchical linear models (HLM, Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002), this study examines within- and between-child associations between teacher-child relationship quality and academic achievement and behavior problems from kindergarten through 5th grade. Additionally, it considers whether relationships with teachers matter more for the developing competence of disadvantaged children.
Results from the first study demonstrate that four distinct trajectories of teacher-child relationship quality can be identified from kindergarten through 5th grade. Specifically, one large group of children showed a stable trajectory of high relationship quality, two groups showed qualitatively different trajectories of decreasing quality, and a fourth group showed a trajectory of increased quality. Both characteristics and competencies of the child and his or her family were found to be useful predictors of membership in each trajectory group. Results of the second study indicate that relationship quality teachers report with students is associated with trajectories of achievement and behavior problems from kindergarten through 5th grade for all children, regardless of their socioeconomic risk status. Taken together, these findings support the idea that different quality teacher-child relationships constitute an important context for the development of childrens competence in school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04232009-232918 |
| Date | 17 June 2009 |
| Creators | Maldonado, Carolina |
| Contributors | Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Susan B. Campbell, Heather J. Bachman, Joan I. Vondra |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04232009-232918/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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