Pupils’ Perceptions of Teachers

Abstract

The study, with 536 second-sixth graders as subjects, attempted to investigate the relationships between teacher and “idea”-teacher discrepancies (hereafter designated as discrepancies) and six dependent variables. Results of the study were summarized as: (a) high-school achievement scorers tended to manifest low discrepancies, and vice versa; (b) boys appeared to exhibit higher discrepancies than girls did; (c) those more socially acceptable children seemed to exhibit low discrepancies, and vice versa; (d) those children who indicated higher school attitude scores had a tendency to show low discrepancies, and vice versa; (e) those children who rated themselves high on aggressiveness were inclined to show high discrepancies, and vice versa; and (f) there was no statistically significant relationship between peer-report aggressiveness and such discrepancies.     

Discrepancies between perceptions of first-grade students at risk for learning disabilities,their parents and teachers

ABSTRACT

This study compared discrepancies between children’s academic and social self-perceptions and parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of children’s academic and social competence among 89 first-grade children: 45 children at risk for learning disabilities (RLD) and 44 of typically developing peers (TD). The relationship between self-perceptions among the two groups of children and their significant adults‘ perceptions were compared. The children with RLD reported lower academic self-perception, but did not report lower social self-concept. The discrepancies between students’, parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of students’ academic and social competence were found only for the RLD group. Parents and teachers rated children with RLD as demonstrating lower levels of academic competence. Only teachers rated children with RLD as demonstrating lower levels of social competence. No significant differences were found among children and their significant adults for the comparison group. A serial-multiple mediation analysis presented the relationship model and emphasized the critical mediating role of teachers and parents in predicting children’s academic self-concept. The educational implications of the results call for sensitizing teachers and parents to their perceptions, and to develop empowering intervention with a focused awareness to the impact of their perceptions.     

Adolescent-to-Mother Psychological Aggression: The Role of Father Violence and Maternal Parenting Style

BackgroundAdolescent-to-parent psychological aggression is often a precursor to physical aggression toward their parents. Recently, there have been 4 high-profile matricide cases that happened in China. To date, there is limited research in Confucian filial piety culture on child-to-parent psychological aggression, especially toward the mother who is overwhelming the target of children’s aggression.ObjectiveThe goal of this study is to explore the prevalence of adolescent-to-mother psychological aggression and examine the role of father violence and maternal parenting style in contributing to these behaviors in Confucian filial piety culture.MethodsParticipants were 1134 students from 7 to 12 grade (M = 14 years, SD = 1.5) in Qingdao located in Shandong Province in east side of China where the Confucian Culture began. The instruments used were a demographics questionnaire, adolescent-to-mother psychological aggression questionnaire, father’s violent behavior questionnaire and maternal parenting style questionnaire.ResultsTwo types of adolescent-to-mother psychological aggression were assessed: contempt and rebellion. The prevalence of adolescent-to-mother contempt and rebellion was 30.7% and 18.7%, respectively. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that father’s conflict with grandparents, maternal control and over-protection were positively associated with adolescent’s contempt for mother. Parents divorced, father’s conflict with grandparents, father-to-mother physical violence and maternal rejection were positively associated with adolescent’s rebellion against mother. Maternal emotional warmth was negatively associated with adolescent’s contempt and rebellion against mother.ConclusionAdolescent-to-mother psychological aggression occurs within a broader family context of violence and disharmony. Observational learning of father’s conflict with grandparents or violent behaviors toward mother maybe the mechanism of violence passing from generations. However, maternal emotional warmth buffered the negative association between father’s conflict with grandparents and adolescent’s contempt for mother. But maternal control and over-protection exacerbated the positive relationships between father’s conflict with grandparents and adolescent’s contempt for mother.     

Applying and Interpreting Mixture Distribution Latent State-Trait Models

Latent state-trait (LST) models are commonly applied to determine the extent to which observed variables reflect trait-like versus state-like constructs. Mixture distribution LST (M-LST) models relax the assumption of population homogeneity made in traditional LST models, allowing researchers to identify subpopulations (latent classes) with differing trait- and state-like attributes. Applications of M-LST models are scarce, presumably because of the analysis complexity. We present a step-by-step tutorial for evaluating M-LST models based on an application to mother, father, and teacher reports of children’s inattention (n = 811). In the application, we found three latent classes for mother and father reports and four classes for teacher reports. All reporter solutions contained classes with very low, low, and moderate levels of inattention. The teacher solution also contained a class with high inattention. Comparable mother and father (but not teacher) classes exhibited similar levels of trait and state variance.     

Causal attributions of teachers and parents regarding children's performance

Nine upper elementary teachers assigned equal numbers of children from their own classrooms to three performance categories: Low Performance, Moderate Performance and High Performance. A child's teacher and his or her parent (usually the mother) then completed structured and open-ended questions regarding the reasons why the child performed as he did. While teachers rated child's ability, own teaching, and mother, father and peer influence higher and other reasons (e.g., health, situational characteristics) lower for high performing than for low performing children on structured questions, parents of children in the different conditions did not differ significantly in their ratings on each factor. On both open-ended and structured questions, for all performance levels, teaching was rated as more important by parents than by teachers.     

Mother and Child Ratings of Child Anxiety: Associations With Behavioral Avoidance and the Role of Family Accommodation

Objective. This study compared mother and child ratings of child anxiety to each other and to an objective measure of the child’s avoidant behavior, using a novel motion-tracking paradigm. The study also examined the moderating role of family accommodation for the link between mother ratings of child anxiety and child behavioral avoidance. Design. Participants were 98 children (7- to 14-years-old) and their mothers. Children met criteria for a primary anxiety disorder. Measures included parent and child versions of the Multi-Dimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders. Children also completed the Spider Phobia Questionnaire for children and the Family Accommodation Scale for Anxiety—Child Report. The Yale Interactive Kinect Environment Software platform was used to measure children’s behavioral avoidance of spider images. Results. Mother and child ratings of child anxiety were moderately correlated. Only child ratings of child anxiety were associated with child behavioral avoidance. Child-rated family accommodation moderated the association between parent ratings and child avoidance. When accommodation was low parent ratings correlated with child avoidance, but not when accommodation was high. Conclusions. The findings contribute to understanding commonly reported discrepancies between mother and child ratings of child anxiety symptoms.     

The Effectiveness of Feedback in -Teaching Principles of Educational Psychology

Sixty-seven male and seventy-three female undergraduates rated self, father, mother, and a male teacher on MARS. They also rated the teacher on a 17-item scale (RST) at the end of the course and took five teacher-made achievement tests during the semester. Students were divided into high and low achievement levels (AL), using the median as the cutoff. Two-way multivariate analysis of variance showed significant (p<.0001) differences in teacher ratings on MARS and RST factors between the sexes and between high and low AL Ss (p<.05) . Also, significant sex x AL interaction (p<.05) was found for the RST data.     

Does Temperament Moderate the Relation between Preschool Parenting and School-Age Self-Regulation? Contrasting Diathesis-Stress and Differential Susceptibility Models

Objective. Children vary in how sensitive they are to environmental influences. Child temperament is an individual difference factor that appears to moderate the impact of environment on early child development. This study contrasts the “diathesis-stress/dual risk” and “differential susceptibility” models in examining difficult temperament as a moderator of the relation between preschool parenting and school-aged child persistence. Design. A longitudinal design included 61 typically developing Portuguese children (31 girls) assessed when they were toddlers (Time 1 at 1–3 years), preschoolers (Time 2 at 4–6 years), and school aged (Time 3 at 8–10 years). At Time 1, parents were recruited and interviewed. At Time 2, semi-structured mother–child interactions were observed, and preschool teachers rated children’s temperament. At Time 3, children’s task persistence was rated by their elementary teachers. Results. Difficult temperament moderated the association between mother–child interactions and child persistence, with stronger associations for children with more difficult temperaments. Conclusions. Consistent with the diathesis-stress model, results reveal that high levels of positive parenting reduce the risk of low self-regulation associated with difficult temperament.     

The College as a Social System: Student Perceptions of Students,Faculty, and Administration

Abstract

This is a report on a new instrument for institutional research, (Transactional Analysis of Personality and Environment-(TAPE), based on the semantic differential and unique in its potential for analysis of the integration among students, faculty, and administration in a college, A total of 3,016 students from twenty-one colleges rated the following concepts on the 52 scales in Form A or the 52 scales in Form B: “My College,” “My Self,” “Students,” “Faculty,” “Administration,” and “Ideal College.” Ratings of satisfaction with aspects of college life also were made. The data presented indicate that individuals who perceive great discrepancies between themselves and their college tend to be dissatisfied and consider dropping out. Furthermore, those colleges which have large mean Self- College discrepancies also tend to have high mean dissatisfaction scores. Data are also presented to exemplify the intra- and inter-institutional research comparisons possible with TAPE.     

From Supporting to Co-Parenting: The New Roles of Fathers

SYNOPSIS

To develop a secure attachment, the quality of the mother’s relationship is fundamental, but now there is evidence that fathers equally play early and integrated roles in the development of the child, particularly in social and communicative skills. Hiraoka and colleagues emphasize father support in regulating maternal distress while listening to the infant’s cry. We also emphasize the father’s role in supporting the mother and in improving social and communicative competences in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.     

Father Involvement and Father–Child Relationship Quality: An Intergenerational Perspective

Objective. The present study looks at predictors that may be associated with father–child relationship quality and whether relationship quality appears to be transmitted across generations. Design. This study includes 2,970 U.S. families who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. Structural equation modeling was used to assess associations between fathers’ relationship with paternal grandfathers (PGF) during their own childhood and when their own children are 1 year old, father involvement at age 1, and child reports of father-child relationship quality at age 9. Results. Paternal grandfathers involvement with fathers during childhood was positively associated with the father-paternal grandfathers relationship at child age 1, which in turn was associated with greater father involvement at age 1. More father involvement at age 1 was associated with child reports of better father-child relationships at age 9. The pathways from paternal grandfathers involvement during fathers’ childhood and father–paternal grandfathers relationships at age 1 to father–child relationship quality at age 9 were fully mediated by father involvement at age 1. Conclusions. Patterns of father involvement and the quality of father–child relationships tend to be passed down across generations. To ensure an active, positive father involvement and its associated benefits for children, parenting interventions should focus promoting positive fathering behaviors to promote positive relationships with children in their own and future generations.     

Interpretations of Parenting by Mainland Chinese and U.S. American Children

Objective. This study examined whether mainland Chinese and U.S. American children’s interpretations of their parents’ coercive authority assertion and critical comparison and shaming moderate relations between their reports of parenting and adjustment. Design. Middle-school children from mainland China (n = 217) and the United States (n = 207) rated their parents on coercive authority assertion and critical comparison and shaming, indicated whether they approved of their parents’ practices, rated their parents’ underlying intentions, and reported their own depression, antisocial behavior, and school motivation. Results. Moderation analyses showed that associations between coercive authority assertion or critical comparison and shaming and child depression were stronger for American and Chinese children whose approval ratings for these practices were relatively low. Greater coercive authority assertion was related to lower antisocial behavior for children who rated their parents high for the child beneficial interpretation and to lower school motivation for children who rated their parents low for the parent beneficial interpretation. For American children, greater coercive authority assertion also was related to greater depression for those who rated their parents relatively low for the child beneficial interpretation. For Chinese children, greater critical comparison and shaming was related to increased school motivation for those who rated their parents high on the child beneficial and/or parent beneficial interpretations. Conclusions. When children interpret their parents’ behavior in a more positive manner (i.e., they approve or think it is motivated by concern for the child), negative effects of coercive authority assertion and critical comparison and shaming may be mitigated. However, some cultural differences were found, particularly with respect to school motivation.     

The effects of children's communicative status and task on parents' teaching strategies

The two goals of the study were to examine factors affecting parents' teaching strategies with their children and to identify the effectiveness of different teaching strategies for engaging children in tasks. It was hypothesized that teaching strategies would vary as a function of parent status (mother/father), children's communicative status (nonhandicapped-NCH/handicapped-CH) and different tasks (origami/book reading). Each of the 120 families included a target child (M = 4.5 years old), a mother, and a father; 60 families had a CH child and 60 matched families had an NCH child. Each parent engaged in book-reading and origami tasks with their target child. Parents' teaching strategies were recorded and categorized according to levels of cognitive demand. In addition, children's level of task engagement was rated. Results indicated that parents varied their teaching strategies according to both task and children's communicative status. Generally, they were more demanding and less directive of the more competent, NCH, children than of the CH children. Further, parents used different strategies with their NCH and CH children in both tasks to keep them engaged. Results are discussed in terms of Vygotsky's theory of the zone of proximal development.     

Children with profound retardation and their joint training with parents

ABSTRACT

The development of motor activity in children with profound mental retardation employing a special method based on mother/father dyads with her/his child is described. Both parent and child are jointly trained on the basis of a specific programme of lessons which is combined with a home training programme. The main advantages of the method are: high efficiency of lessons, effective instructions for home training, close emotional contact between parents and children, promotion of parents’ optimism and improvement of children's communication. Within this brief characterisation the content and organisation of joint training lessons are also described.     

Effects of social persuasion from parents and teachers on Chinese students’ self-efficacy: an exploratory study

This study compared the effects of social persuasion from parents and teachers on students’ self-efficacy in reading comprehension in English as a foreign language. Ninety-nine Grade 8 Chinese students in a secondary school in Hong Kong completed a questionnaire with six scenarios which tapped their self-efficacy after receiving positive and negative feedback that were described as coming from their teacher, mother and father. Students decreased their self-efficacy after receiving negative feedback and the source of feedback did not make a statistically significant difference. Conversely, positive feedback led to an increase in self-efficacy with the mother’s positive feedback leading to a higher increase in self-efficacy than feedback from the teacher and the father. No statistically significant difference was noted in the change in self-efficacy after receiving feedback from the father and the teacher. Parents and teachers should increase the use of positive feedback and decrease that of negative feedback. Implications for collaboration between teachers and parents in providing positive feedback on students’ academic performance were discussed.     

Self-system concomitants of discrepancies between children's and teacher's evaluations of academic competence

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the psychological concomitants of discrepancies between fourth- to sixth-grade children's perceptions of academic competence and 2 measures of their "actual" competence in this domain: teacher ratings and achievement test scores. Over-, under-, and congruent child raters were identified on the basis of the 2 external standards and then compared on child and teacher ratings of self-esteem, self-regulatory style, and coping with perceived failure. 6 teachers and 121 lower- to upper-middle-class suburban students participated. As predicted, no differences were obtained between congruent and distorted (combined over- and under-) raters on these self-system variables. Consistent with previous research, overrating children showed higher self-esteem on self- and teacher ratings than underraters. After controlling for level of perceived competence, overraters scored higher on anxiety, and, when overrating occurred against the teacher standard, these children were rated by teachers as having lower self-esteem, poorer coping strategies, and less internalized self-regulatory styles. Comparing the 2 standards, self-reported difficulties were associated with underrating against the teacher's standard but not the achievement standard. Teacher reported difficulties were associated with the opposite pattern of underrating against the 2 standards. Motivational factors contributing to patterns of discrepancies are discussed, as are the educational implications of mismatches between teacher and student perceptions of objective and intrapsychic aspects of school experience.     

Emotional and behavior problems in adopted children – The role of early adversities and adoptive parents’ regulation and behavior

BackgroundEarly adversity and negative experiences in the adoptive family can put adopted children at risk for emotional and behavior problems.ObjectiveThis study analyzes the influence of children’s preadoptive history and adoptive parents’ characteristics on the psychosocial adjustment of nationally and internationally adopted children in Germany.Participants and settingThe survey included 172 adopted children aged between 24 and 145 months and their adoptive parents.MethodsParents provided information about preadoptive history. Information about emotional and behavior problems was obtained from the parental version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Parental well-being was obtained through a composite score of three standardized measures (self-efficacy questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale PSS-4, Brief Symptom Inventory BSI); parenting behavior was assessed with the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (DEAPQ).Results12.5% of the adopted children scored in the clinical range of the SDQ. In a multiple regression analysis, the experience of maltreatment and neglect was the most important predictor of emotional and behavior problems at time of assessment, followed by pre- and perinatal risk and parental stress regulation difficulties, R² = .423, F(4, 128) = 28.539. Increases in the number of risk factors present were associated with a greater odd of children scoring in the clinical range of the SDQ.ConclusionsMost of the nationally and internationally adopted children in this sample were well-adjusted. Prenatal and preadoptive risk as well as stress regulation capacities of the main caregiver contributed to the child’s development. An accumulation of risks increased the likelihood of adjustment problems in adopted children.     

Attitudes of Rural School Children toward their Parents

Abstract

In the present study a modified rating scale was administered to a representative school population of 978 Ss in grades 7-12. The concepts investigated were "father" and "mother." The results were reduced to two 10 x 10 correlational matrices and separately factor analyzed using Kaiser's varimax rotation. A comparison of the factor structures of the father and mother concepts revealed differences of dimensionality. The comparison also revealed that attitudes toward the mother are more complex and oriented in terms of how the child perceives the mother to respond to children's needs. The investigation raises questions with regard to the relationship of child-rearing practices and maternal perceptions.     

Peer Assessment of Children's Prosocial Behaviour

The study was designed to examine 8-12-year-olds' peer assessments of prosocial behaviour and their relationship to self-assessments, teacher-assessments and peer acceptance. Although prosocial behaviour has been studied for many years, it has been narrowly operationalised and research has tended to lack ecological validity. To rectify these weaknesses, child-generated normative prosocial behaviours were used to generate peer nomination items for the purpose of rating children's performance of prosocial behaviour in peer interactions. Children also filled out self-ratings of social behaviour and peer sociometric nominations. Teachers assessed children's social behaviour, rating the same child-generated prosocial behaviours. Popular children were rated as significantly more prosocial than all other sociometric groups and rejected children were rated as significantly less prosocial than all other groups. The highest correlation was found between teacher and peer reports of prosocial behaviour. Self-ratings and peer-ratings of prosocial behaviour were significantly related, as were self-ratings and teacherratings of prosocial behaviour. Implications of research findings are discussed.