کمرویی و تعامل: سهم طرد همسالان و حساسیت معلم

This study tested a longitudinal model of mediated moderation for the role of temperament and shyness in the development of young children's (n = 960, aged 54 mos. to 1st grade [SD = 1.08 at 54 mos.]) peer relationships at school and linkages to subsequent academic engagement. Teacher sensitivity was examined as a parallel predictor of peer relationship effects and subsequent engagement, and we examined whether or not adverse effects of shyness on peer relationships and adjustment were stronger in classrooms where teachers displayed lower sensitivity. Findings indicated that peer rejection mediated the association between children's shyness at preschool age and engagement in first grade and that teacher sensitivity, although not directly related to peer rejection, was positively related to engagement. Finally, teacher sensitivity moderated the association between shyness, peer rejection, and classroom engagement. Results suggested that teacher sensitivity plays a role in linkages between shyness and peer rejection. Teacher sensitivity may moderate effects on engagement and function as an important aspect of supportive contexts for shy children.

The classroom context is a central developmental setting for most children in industrialized countries. As children navigate transitions from the smaller peer groups typically experienced in home and early childhood settings, aspects of children's temperament affect a new set of more complex social interactions and subsequent adjustment patterns as they attempt to adapt to new developmental challenges. Researchers have described child by environment models (or, alternatively, child and environment/context models: Coie et al., 1993 and Ladd, 2003) that help explain these complex interactions. These models describe sets of interactions between characteristics of the child (e.g., shy, withdrawn behavior) and those of the social environment or context (e.g., school peer relations) and may also include a focus on the origin of these factors as within the child, within the context, or both. Research on children's adjustment in the school context has been a particularly appropriate area for the application of these models, but few studies have included examinations of interactions between children's temperament and the social context of the classroom, and links to subsequent school adjustment. In this study, we present a model that examines potential contributions for both child and contextual factors to classroom adjustment. We present a mediation model where temperamental shyness, typically viewed as a factor located within the child, plays a potential causal role in the development of peer relationships at school. Within this model, the contextual effects of these peer interactions are, in turn, likely to impact (i.e., mediate the effects of shyness on) children's academic engagement (Fig. 1). We also tested the idea that teacher sensitivity is an additional, parallel contextual factor where peer relationship effects likely also mediate linkages between sensitivity and subsequent adjustment. Finally, we hypothesized that the potentially adverse effects of temperament on peer relationships and adjustment will be stronger within classrooms where teachers display lower levels of teacher sensitivity—a finding that would be consistent with a moderating role for teacher effects on this set of linkages.