ERIC EJ1124353: Temperament in the Classroom: Children Low in Surgency are More Sensitive to Teachers' Reactions to Emotions

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by  ERIC

Special Section: Social inthe Emotional andthe Emotional intheSocial
InternationalJournalof
BehavioralDevelopment
Temperament in the classroom: Children
2017,Vol.41(1)4–14
ªTheAuthor(s)2016
low in surgency are more sensitive Reprintsandpermissions:
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to teachers’ reactions to emotions DOI:10.1177/0165025416644077
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijbd
HidekoHamadaBassett,SusanneA.Denham,NicoleB.Fettig,
Timothy W. Curby, Mandana Mohtasham and Nila Austin
Abstract
Based on the emotion socialization and bioecological models, the present study examined the contributions of teacher emotion
socialization (i.e., teacher reactions to child emotions) on children’s social–emotional behaviors, and the moderating effect of child
temperamental surgency on these relations in the preschool context. A total of 337 children and 80 teachers from private and public
preschools/childcares participated in the study. To account for the nested nature of our data, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was
utilized. The results indicated that several types of teacher reactions to children’s emotions significantly predicted children’s social–
emotional behaviors, after adjusting for prior levels of the behaviors. In addition, significant interactions between child surgency and
teacheremotionsocializationbehaviorsonchildren’ssocial–emotionalbehaviorswerefound.Theseinteractionsindicatedthatchildren
with lowsurgencywere moresensitive toteachers’ positive andnegativesocialization, compared tochildren with highsurgency.Our
resultshighlighttheimportanceofdiscreteemotionsocializationbehaviorsbyteacherstochildren’ssocial–emotionaldevelopment.
Keywords
contingentreactions,preschoolcontext,social–emotionalbehaviors,teacheremotionsocialization,temperamentalsurgency
The emotion socialization perspective states that a socializer’s classroom, we will further our understanding of the mechanism
emotion-relatedbehaviorshaveasignificantimpactonthedevel- of socialization in preschool. Such information is also useful for
opmentofsocial–emotionalcompetence(e.g.,Denham,Bassett,& detailed recommendations for preschool teachers. Therefore, the
Wyatt, 2014; Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Social– firstgoalofthepresentstudyfocusedonthecontributionofteach-
emotional competence is defined as effectiveness in interaction ers’emotionsocializationbehaviorstochildren’ssocial–emotional
(Rose-Krasnor,1997).Toeffectivelyinteractwithpeersandteach- behaviorsinthepreschoolcontext.
ers,preschoolersmustdemonstrateskilledsocial–emotionalbeha- Socialization behaviors, however, may differentially predict
viors, such as expressing and regulating positive and negative social-emotionaloutcomesdependingonchildren’scharacteristics
emotionsinasociallyappropriateway,andinteractingwithpeers (e.g.,temperament).Accordingtothebioecologicalmodel(Bron-
prosociallyratherthanaggressively(Denham,Bassett,Zinsser,& fenbrenner & Morris, 2006), children’s development takes place
Wyatt,2014).Inthepresentstudy,weobservedpreschoolers’emo- throughincreasinglycomplex,regularlyoccurring,reciprocalinter-
tion expression and regulation, as well as social interaction while actions between children and other people, objects, and ideas in
interacting with peers (i.e.,center time,playground) as indicesof their immediate environment. Such interactions are referred to as
social–emotionalcompetence. proximal processes. These proximal processes include teacher–
In the past, most research on emotion socialization involved childinteractionsinpreschoolsettings.Theeffectofsuchproximal
parents;however,recentresearchhasidentifiedpreschoolteachers processes on children’s development varies as a joint function of
aspivotalfacilitatorsofthedevelopmentofchildren’ssocial–emo- person(e.g.,child),context(e.g.,settings),andtime.Inthepresent
tional competence (Denham, Bassett, & Zinsser, 2012; Pianta & study, we especially focused on how characteristics of the devel-
Hamre, 2009). For example, empirical research suggests that a opingperson(i.e.,childtemperament)affecttherelationbetween
global rating of teachers’ emotional support (Curby, Brock, & teacher-child affective interactions (proximal processes)and chil-
Hamre, 2013) and teacher–child relationship qualities (Hipson & dren’s social–emotional behaviors with peers. Accordingly, this
Se´guin, 2015) are related to child social–emotional outcomes. study’s second goal is to examine moderating effects of child
Teachers’ overall ability to provide emotionally-supportive class- temperament on the relations between teachers’ emotion
rooms and to form positive relationships with children create an
importantenvironmentforhealthysocial–emotionaldevelopment,
whereasteachers’discreteemotionsocializationbehaviorsprovide
GeorgeMasonUniversity,Fairfax,VA,USA
childrenatargetedlearningopportunityaboutspecificsocial–emo-
tionalbehaviors.However,toourknowledge,therelationofteach-
Correspondingauthor:
ers’ discrete emotion socialization behaviors to child social– Hideko Hamada Bassett, George Mason University, 4400 University Dr.,
emotional development has not yet been explored. By examining MS#3F5,Fairfax,VA22030,USA.
micro-levels of teachers’ emotion socialization behaviors in the Email:[email protected]
Bassett et al. 5
socialization and child social–emotional behaviors in the pre- much about solving social problems with skill—two different
schoolclassroom. social-emotionalcompetencies.Thus,inadditiontoaglobalrating
of teachers’ emotional support, it is important to examine how
teachers’ discrete emotion socialization behaviors are related to
Emotion socialization and social–emotional children’sdevelopmentofsocial–emotionalcompetence.
development: Teachers’ role
Accordingtotheemotionsocializationtheory,socializers’contin- Temperamental surgency
gentreactionstospecificemotionsmayhelpyoungchildrenlearn
Temperament refers to an inherited disposition that is linked to
social–emotional behaviors appropriate in the culture (e.g., Den-
individual differences in emotional and behavioral reactivity and
ham,Bassett,&Wyatt,2014;Eisenbergetal.,1998).Adultsmay
regulation(Rothbart&Bates,2006).Assuch,temperamentplaysa
respond to children’s experience and expression of emotions in
keyroleinthebioecologicalperspective.Onewidelyacceptedand
supportive (e.g., accepting, comforting), or unsupportive ways
empiricallysupportedmodelconceptualizestemperamentasthree
(e.g.,ignoring,minimizing,punishing).Thesesocializers’reactions
broad clusters: two reactive factors (surgency and negative affec-
to children’s emotions convey important messages regarding
tivity) and one regulatory factor (effortful control) (Rothbart &
expression and regulation of emotions. Empirical findings show
Putnam, 2002). Among the temperamental factors, surgency is
significant relations between parental reactions to toddlers’ and
associated with an approach/withdraw tendency to a novel situa-
preschoolers’emotionsandtheirsocial–emotionalcompetence.For
tion, energy activation, and sociability (Rothbart & Bates, 2006).
example, mothers’ supportive reactions to children’s emotions
Low-surgency children are apprehensive toward new people and
positively relate to preschoolers’ expressiveness of positive emo-
events in the environment. Because they are likely to experience
tions (Fabes, Poulin, Eisenberg, & Madden-Derdich, 2002) and
anxietyinnovelsituations(Hipson&Se´guin,2015),thesechildren
emotion regulation (Spinrad, Stifter, Donelan-McCall, & Turner,
tendtodisplaycautiousbehaviors.Theytendtobeshyandsocially
2004). In contrast, parents who employ unsupportive reactions to
withdrawn,orquietlyobserveunfamiliarchildreninasocialsitu-
emotionaremorelikelytohavesadder,morefearfulchildren(Ber-
ation(Kagan,Snidman,Arcus,1998).Heightenedanxietyinnovel
lin&Cassidy,2003)andchildrenwithdiminishedemotionregu-
situationsmayleadthemtobecomevigilantandmoreresponsiveto
latoryabilities(Luebbe,Kiel,&Buss,2011).
socializers’behaviors(Kochanska,1997).Infact,surgencyisone
Duringthepreschoolageperiod,however,contextsoutsidethe
ofchildcharacteristicswhichishypothesizedtoexplainsensitivity
family become important. Preschool is rich in emotional experi-
to socialization behaviors (Belsky, 2005). In contrast, high-
ences,andyoungchildrenlearnaboutemotionsthroughdailyinter-
surgency children can be characterized as highly active and con-
actionswithteachersandpeers.Inaddition,evenwhenchildrenare
stantlyexploringtheirenvironmentwithrelativedisregardforrules
notdirectlyinvolvedinaninteraction,theycanlearnaboutsocial
and regulations on their behavior (Berdan, Keane, & Calkins,
and emotional norms in the classroom through observing social–
2008).Theyaresociableandspendmoretimeininteractionsrather
emotionalbehaviorsofpeersandteachers.Theseexperiencesinthe
thanobservingotherchildren(Kaganetal.,1998).Individualdif-
classroom assist children in acquiring social–emotional compe-
ferencesinsurgencyarerelatedtothefrequenciesofteacher–child
tence. To become socially–emotionally competent, children must
interactions in preschool. Specifically, Rudasill and Rimm-
learntheskillsthatenablethemtoeffectivelyinteractwithothers
Kaufman (2009) found that low-surgency children interacted less
(Rose-Krasnor, 1997). These skills are demonstrated with appro-
with their teacher in the classroom, compared to high-surgency
priateexpressionandregulationofemotions,cooperationwithoth-
children.
ers,anduseofprosocialstrategiestosolveconflicts.
Hence, it can be assumed that low-surgency children spend
Therefore, preschool is an important context for young chil-
moretimeobserving otherchildren’sandteacher’sbehaviorsand
dren’s social–emotional development. Emerging research espe-
interactions,ratherthaninteractingwithothersintheclassroom.As
cially focuses on preschool teachers’ role; for example, high
the social cognitive theory stated (Bandura, 1989), learning can
levels of teacher emotional support are related to better social–
occur through observation. In addition, low-surgency children’s
emotional outcomes for children (Curby, Brock, & Hamre, 2013;
likely experience of heightened anxiety in novel situations may
Howesetal.,2008;Mashburnetal.,2008).Thesestudies,however,
enhancesensitivitytoteachersocializationbehaviorsintheclass-
focusonteachers’overallabilitiestoprovideanemotionallysup-
room.Incontrast,high-surgencychildrenaremorelikelytoenjoy
portiveenvironmentintheclassroom,andhavenotexaminedtheir
socialinteractionwiththeirpeersandteacherratherthanobserving
discrete emotion socialization behaviors. Early childhood educa-
others’behaviors.Thesedifferencesinbehavioralandphysiologi-
tionresearchindicatesthatpreschoolteachersarelikelytoengage
cal tendencies may be related to how much children learn from
inawidevarietyofdiscreteemotionsocializationbehaviorsinthe
teachers’emotionsocializationbehaviorsabouttheappropriateness
classroom, parallel to parental emotion socialization behaviors
orinappropriatenessofsocial–emotionalbehaviors.
(Ahn&Stifter,2006;Ersay,2007).Teacherswhoseclassroomsare
ratedasequallyemotionallysupportivemayhavedifferentstylesof
reacting to children’s emotions. For example, in an emotionally The present study
supportive classroom, a teacher may respond in an empathic way
to validate children’s distressed emotions, or may help children Inthepresentstudy,wefocusedonyoungchildren’ssocial–emo-
come up with solutions to distressing situations. Different types tionalcompetenceinthepreschoolcontext.Specifically,weexam-
ofreactionsmaysenddifferentsocializationmessagestochildren ined (1) how teachers’ discrete emotion socialization behaviors
in the classroom, about specific emotions and emotion-related (i.e., contingent reactions) observed in the middle of the school
behaviors. Children in the first example may learn much about year(winter)predictedchildren’ssocial–emotionalbehaviorswith
prosocialreactionstoothers,whereasthoseinthesecondmaylearn peers in the second half of the school year (spring), and (2) how
6 International Journal of Behavioral Development 41(1)
children’s level of temperamental surgency moderate these rela- Northern Virginia, USA. After meeting with a director of each
tions.Tohaveabetterunderstandingofhowteacheremotionsocia- center,weobtainedconsentfromparticipatingteachers.Then,chil-
lization was related to preschoolers’ social–emotional dren and families in these teachers’ classrooms were recruited at
development, we included scores of children’s social–emotional recruitmenteventsheldatchildpick-up,informationsessionsheld
behaviors in the early part of the school year (fall) to partial out atthe facilities, and/or through thehelp of facility social workers
prior levels of social–emotional behaviors. In addition, because anddirectors.Afterreceivingconsentfromparents,weaskedpar-
social–emotionalbehaviorsmaydifferaccordingtoageandgender, entstofillseveralquestionnairesincludingdemographicinforma-
we included these variables as covariates in the models. Specifi- tion,childtemperament,andparentalemotionsocialization.Only
cally,emotionandbehaviorregulationareoftenfoundtoincrease demographic and child temperament questionnaires were used in
withageduringpreschoolyears(Epstein,Synhorst,Cress,&Allen, thisstudy.
2009).Asforgenderdifferences,someresearchshowsthatemotion Childdatawerecollectedtwice—inthefirsthalfoftheschool
and behavior regulation skills are greater for girls than boys year(fall,T1)andinthesecondhalfoftheschoolyear(spring,T2),
(Epsteinetal.,2009).Girlsarealsofoundtoshowmoreprosocial approximately 5 months apart. In each data collection period, we
and peer skills, whereas boys are found to be more aggressive observed children’s social-emotional behaviors during peer inter-
(Romano,Tremblay,Boulerice,&Swisher,2005). actions for 5-minute intervals across 4 different days. Teachers’
Based on the findings of parental socialization research, we emotionsocializationbehaviorsintheclassroomwereobservedfor
expected that teachers’ contingent reactions predict children’s eight 10-minute sessions across 4 different days between the two
social-emotional behaviors after adjusting for prior levels of timesofchildassessment(i.e.,inthewinter).
social–emotional behaviors. We hypothesized that supportive
teacherreactionswouldbepositivelyrelatedtochildren’spositive
aspects of social–emotional behaviors and negatively related to Measures
negativeaspectsofsocial–emotionalbehaviors.Incontrast,unsup-
portiveteacherreactionswouldbenegativelyrelatedtochildren’s Observationofchildren’ssocio-affectivebehaviors.TheMinnesota
positive aspects of social–emotional behaviors and positively Preschool Affect Checklist-Revised/Shortened (MPAC-R/S: Den-
relatedtonegativeaspectsofsocial–emotionalbehaviors.Because ham,Bassett,Zinsser,&Wyatt,2014)isan18-itemobservational
of differences in behavioral and physiological tendency between measureassessingchildren’ssocial–emotionalbehaviors(i.e.,emo-
low-andhigh-surgencychildren,wefurtherhypothesizedthatlow- tional expression, emotion regulation, and social skills) during
surgencychildrenwouldbemoresensitivetoteachersocialization interaction with peers. In using the MPAC-R/S, children’s beha-
behaviors. Specifically, we expected stronger relations between viors are observed in differing play and interaction contexts, and
teachers’ reactions to emotions and the changes on their social– codedforpresence(‘‘1’’)orabsence(‘‘0’’)ofpredefinedbehaviors
emotional behaviors for low-surgency children, compared to during 5-minute intervals across 4 different days. Coders were
high-surgencychildren. encouraged to observe during less structured periods (i.e., center
time, outside recess, gym, as opposed to teacher-led instructional
time).TheitemsinMPAC-R/Sareorganizedintoscalesforposi-
Method tive(3items:showingapositiveaffectinanymanner;facial,vocal,
and/orbehavioral)andnegative(2items:showinganegativeaffect
In the present study, 337 children (54% male; Mage in months ¼ in any manner) affect, productive (2 items: e.g., engrossed in the
48.35, SDage in months ¼ 7.14) and 80 teachers (100% female; ongoing activity) and unproductive (2 items: e.g., being listless)
Modeagerange¼25–35years)weredrawnfromalongitudinalstudy involvementinage-appropriateactivities,positivereactionstofrus-
of teacher socialization of social–emotional competencies in pre- tration(2items:e.g.,whenfacingwithaconflicts,verballyexpres-
school. Participating children were 75% Caucasian, 16% African sing frustration in a positive or neutral manner), social skills
American,8%Asian,and1%AmericanIndian/AlaskanNativeor (4 items: e.g., joining, cooperating with peers, taking turns), and
Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander. The majority of partici- aggressivebehaviors(3items:e.g.,ventingfrustrationtowardpeo-
pantswasnon-Hispanic(81%)andspokeEnglishastheirprimary ple or objects). Thus, the MPAC-R/S taps important elements of
language(84%;Spanish8%).Themodeeducationlevelofparents social–emotional functioning; the variety of behaviors sampled
who provided demographic information was some college educa- yields a richness of the information regarding children’s social–
tion.Thegroupofparticipatingteacherswas60%Caucasian,19% emotionalbehaviors,achievedinfourshortobservations.Eachitem
AfricanAmerican,6%Asian,and15%otherornotreported;83% scorewascalculatedbysummingacrossvisits.Becausethenumber
self-identifiedasnon-Hispanic.Themodeeducationlevelofteach- of items varied across scales, calculating the mean of the scales
erswasbachelor’sdegree. yieldedatotalscoreforeachscale(possiblerange¼0–4).
Ofthe total, 228 children and 75 teachers were included in the Observertrainingconsistedofmultiplesessions,fromlearning
analysesduetomissingdata.Missingdatawereduetoparentsnotfilling the definitions of each target behavior to coding children’s beha-
questionnaires(27.9%missing),childrenmoving(8.0%missing),and viorsinpracticevideosasagroupandindividually.Attheendof
teachersleavingthecenter(2.5%missing).Analysesrevealednosig- thetraining,eachobservercodedchildren’sbehaviorsin22relia-
nificant mean differenceson any study variablesbetween children/ bilityvideos.Goodtoexcellentinter-observerreliabilitywasindi-
teachersincludedintheanalysesandexcludedfromtheanalyses. cated by the intraclass correlation that ranged from .74 (negative
affectscale)to.98(emotionregulationscale).
Procedures Inthepresentstudy,becausewefocusedonchildren’ssocial–
emotionalbehaviors withpeers,weexcludedthescalescapturing
Participantswererecruitedatthebeginningoftheacademicschool child level of productivity in age-appropriate activities (i.e., pro-
year from 22 private childcare and two Head Start centers in ductive and unproductive involvement). Thus, scales used in the
Bassett et al. 7
present study included positive affectivity, social skills, negative in coding, the trainees coded practice videos in a group and indi-
affectivity, aggressive behaviors, and emotion regulation. To vidually. At the end of the training, they coded three reliability
reduce the number of outcome variables, we conducted principal videos and their coding was compared to master coder’s coding
component analyses (Promax with Kaiser Normalization) for T1 tocalculateinter-observerreliability.Inter-observerreliabilitywas
and T2 separately. Three identical principal components, which kappa¼.85foremotionsand.67forreactions.Beforestartingdata
reflected the skilled social–emotional behaviors needed for effec- collection,observershadtopasslivereliability,forwhichapaired
tively interacting with others, emerged across the two times of observers live-coded teacher’s and children’s emotions and reac-
observation (74% and 77% of variance explained at T1 and T2, tions in a classroom (kappa ¼ .74 for emotions and .85 for
respectively):(1)emotionallynegative/aggressive(negativeaffect, reactions).
aggressive behaviors), (2) emotionally positive/socially skilled Thenumberofeachobservedteacheremotionandreactionwere
(positiveaffect,socialskills),and(3)emotionallyregulated(pos- aggregatedacrosssessions.Forteacheremotions,wedividedeach
itive reactions to frustration). The factor scores were created by emotionbythetotalnumberofteacher’sexpressedemotionduring
takingthemeanofitemsthatloadedhighlyoneachfactor.Cron- observations to give a proportion of each emotion relative to
bach’s alphas showed acceptable to good internal consistency for expressedemotionsbytheteacher.Forteacherreactions,theaggre-
the factors: emotionally negative/aggressive (5 items) ¼ .68, .75, gates were divided by the number of child emotions to give a
emotionallypositive/sociallyskilled(7items)¼.61,.61,andemo- proportionofeachresponserelativetoemotionsshown.
tionallyregulated(2items)¼.81,.82forT1andT2,respectively. Becausewespecificallyfocusedontherelationsbetweenatype
of teacher reactions to children’s emotions and their social–emo-
Observation of teacher reactions to children’s emotions. Using tionaldevelopment,onlyteacherreactionswereusedinthepresent
FOCAL-T(Denham&Bassett,2013),weobservedteachersinter- study.Toreducethenumberofteacher-levelpredictors,aprincipal
actingwithchildrenintheirclassroomduringregularactivitiesfor componentanalysis(PromaxwithKaiserNormalization)wasper-
eight10-minutesessionsoveraperiodofapproximately6weeks, formedwithbehavioralreactions.Theresultyieldedthreetypesof
duringcircletime,centertime,andlunch.FOCAL-Tisdesignedto behavioral reactions: (1) Unsupportive Reactions (punitive reac-
capture preschool teachers’ discrete emotion socialization beha- tions þ minimizing reactions), (2) Supportive Reactions
viors: expression of discrete emotions and reactions to children’s (problem-focused reactions þ emotion-focused reactions), and
emotions. Teachers are observed in their classroom setting by (3) Validating Reactions (validating reactions). The thre factors
codersusingtabletcomputersandsoftwaredevelopedbyRoberts explained50%ofvariance.Inaddition,wecreatedPositiveReac-
(2011).Foreachteacher,therewereeight5-minutetrialswiththe tions (positive reactions–distressed reactions), as a type of emo-
teacher as focal person, counting his/her expressed emotions and tional reactions. Similar components of reactions and emotions
children’sreactions,alternatingwitheight5-minutetrialswithchil- were found in observed (Denham & Kochanoff, 2002) and self-
dren as focal person(s) counting children’s emotions toward the reported (Spinrad et al., 2007) parental emotion socialization
teacherandtheteacher’sreactionstotheiremotions.Becauseour behaviors.
focuswasateacher’semotionsocializationbehaviorsintheclass- BecausethereweretoofewitemsoneachscaleforCronbach’s
room,observationswerenotdonewithanyspecificteacher–child alpha to necessarily be meaningful (Spiliotopoulou, 2009), the
dyads. meaninter-itemcorrelationwasexaminedasanindicatorofinter-
Focalemotionsincluded(1)happy,(2)sad,(3)angry,(4)tense, nalconsistency.Meaninter-itemcorrelationsshowedanacceptable
(5)tender,(6)pain,(7)other,and(8)neutral.Twotypesofreac- scalereliability(r¼.28forpositivereactionsto¼.29forunsup-
tionstofocalpersonswerecoded:behavioralandemotionalreac- portivereactions).AccordingtoClarkandWatson(1995),amean
tions. Behavioral reactions included (1) punitive reactions (e.g., inter-itemcorrelationabove.14isconsideredtobeacceptable.
threaten a child for showing emotion), (2) problem-focused reac-
tions (e.g., help a child solve an emotion eliciting problem), (3) Child temperament. Parents reported on children’s temperament
emotion-focusedreactions(e.g.,trytomakeachildfeelbetter),(4) with the Child Behavior Questionnaire-Very Short Form (CBQ-
validatingreactions(e.g.,acknowledgeachildemotion),(5)mini- VSF;Putnam &Rothbart,2006),yieldingscalesofeffortfulcon-
mizing reactions (e.g., tease a child for expressing emotion), and trol, negative affect, and surgency. The CBQ-VSF includes 36
emotionalreactionsincluded,(6)distressreactions(e.g.,showfrus- items on which parents report on questions about their children’s
tration to a child emotion), (7) matching positive reactions (e.g., typicalreactionstodifferentsituationsinthepast6months.These
smile backtoa smilingchild). Observers enterthefocal person’s questions are answered using a seven-point Likert-type scale on
emotion’scodeatitsonset,andthenenterreactionstoeachemotion which 1 ¼ never, 4 ¼ about half the time, and 7 ¼ always. In
astheseoccur(reactionsareconsideredmutuallyexclusive,butcan previous work, the consistency in factor structure across the life
be coded successively), and then look back to the focal person/ span is remarkable (Putnam, Sanson, & Rothbart, 2002) and the
group.If thesame emotion continues, reactions are again sought; CBQ-VSF specifically has shown adequate stability throughout
ifnoemotionisbeingdisplayed,theobserverentersthe‘‘neutral’’ preschool(Putnam&Rothbart,2006).Inthisstudy,onlythesur-
code.Whenteachersarenotfocalpersons,codingbeginswithan gencyscale(Cronbach’sa¼.72)wasused.
emotionexpressedbyanychildinthegroupwithinthreefeetofthe
teacher. Data analysis
IntensivetrainingwasrequiredtobecomeareliableFOCAL-T
coder. After learning the definitions of the emotion and reaction To account for the nested nature of the data, hierarchical linear
codes, trainees took a written reliability test, in which they were modeling(HLM;Raudenbush&Bryk,2002)wasusedtotestour
asked to assign an emotion or reaction code to short scenarios researchquestionswithHLM6.0software.Inordertoestimatethe
describing teacher–child emotional interactions in the classroom. amount ofvariance atthechild andteacher levels,as afirst step,
Afterpassingthewrittenreliabilitytestwith80%ormoreaccuracy unconditionalHLMmodelswereanalyzedthataccountedonlyfor
8 International Journal of Behavioral Development 41(1)
thenestednatureofthedata.Then,Model1withLevel1andLevel significantcorrelationsbetweenT1andT2,suggestingthesebeha-
2 predictors was run. In this model, surgency was group-mean viors were somewhat stable. Teacher positive reactions showed a
centeredinLevel-1andgrand-meancenteredinLevel-2toaccount significant negative correlation with unsupportive and supportive
forbothwithin-andbetween-classroomvariance.Otherpredictors reactions.
wereenteredasgrand-meancentered.Model1canberepresented
bythefollowingequations:
Unconditional multilevel models
Level-1Model1
Tocalculateavariancecomponentforeachlevel,anunconditional
Y ¼b þb ðSURGENCYÞ þb ðMALEÞ þb ðAGEÞ
ij 0 1 2 3 model was tested for each outcome. By dividing the amount of
þb ðSOCIAL(cid:2)EMOTIONALBEHAVIORSatT1Þ þr
4 ij classroom-level variance by the total variance, we computed an
Level-2Model1 intraclass correlation (ICC). The variance at each level and the
ICCsforeachoutcomearepresentedinTable2.Accordingtothe
b ¼g þg ðPOSITIVEREACTIONSÞ
0 00 01 ICCs,classroomcontextaccountedfor9%,21%,and5%oftheT2
þg02ðUNSUPPORTIVEREACTIONSÞ variance in children’s emotionally positive/socially skilled, emo-
þg ðSUPPORTIVEREACTIONSÞ tionallynegative/aggressive,andemotionallyregulatedbehaviors,
03
þg04ðVALIDATINGREACTIONSÞþg05ðSURGENCYÞþu0 respectively.Therandomeffectatclassroom-levelwasnotsignif-
icant for children’s emotionally regulated behaviors. Due to the
Thismodelexaminesourfirstresearchquestion:maineffectsof exploratory nature of the study, the low-powered nature of these
teachercontingentreactionstochildemotions.TheLevel-1equa- random effects tests, and for consistency’s sake, we included this
tionmodelswithin-classvariancebasedonchildren’scharacteris- outcome in the further tests of the effects of level-2 predictors,
tics. Thus, for child i in classroom j, the expected outcome, Y, is includingthemoderationeffectofchildtemperamentalsurgency.
equaltotheclassroomaverageforthatoutcome,b ;plusaneffect
0
forthechild’ssurgency,b ;plusaneffectforthechild’sgender,b ;
1 2
Conditional models
plusaneffectforthechild’sage,b ;plusaneffectforthechild’s
3
social–emotional behaviors at T1, b ; plus error, r . The Level-2
4 ij InModel1,weexaminedmaineffectsofchild-levelandteacher-
equationmodelsbetween-classroomvarianceusingteachers’reac-
levelpredictorsoneachoutcome(Table2).Subsequently,teacher
tions and surgency (classroom average) as predictors. Thus, the
reactionswereaddedtotheslopeofsurgencytocreatecross-level
classroomaverage,b ,isequaltoagrandaverage,g ;pluseffects
0 00 interactionsasModel2.
fortypesofteacherreactions,g tog ;pluseffectsforsurgency
01 04
(classroom average), g05; plus error, u0. In addition, the slope of Child-level predictors. Child age negatively and gender positively
outcomeonsurgency,b ,isequaltothegrandaverage,g .
1 10 predictedemotionallynegative/aggressivebehaviorsatT2,indicat-
Model2isidenticaltoModel1exceptthatthemodelincluded
ingyoungerchildrenandboysshowedmoreemotionallynegative/
cross-levelinteractionsbetweensurgencyandtypesofteacherreac-
aggressivebehaviorscomparedtoolderchildrenandgirls.Asfor
tionstoaddressoursecondresearchquestion.
emotionally positive/socially skilled and emotionally negative/
Level-2Model2
aggressive behaviors, corresponding T1 scores significantly posi-
b ¼g þg ðPOSITIVEREACTIONSÞ tivelypredicted T2scores. However, emotionally regulated beha-
1 10 11
viors at T1 did not significantly predict T2 scores. In addition,
þg ðUNSUPPORTIVEREACTIONSÞ
12 temperamental surgency was not a significant predictor of chil-
þg ðSUPPORTIVEREACTIONSÞ
13 dren’ssocial–emotionalbehaviors.
þg ðVALIDATINGREACTIONSÞ
14
Teacher-level predictors. On this level, various types of teacher
Thus,inModel2,theslopeofoutcomeonsurgency,b ,isequal
1 reactionstoemotionsshowedasignificantrelationwithchildren’s
toagrandaverage,g ;pluseffectsfortypesofteacherreactions,
10 social–emotional behaviors with peers (Table 2). Specifically,
g tog .Forasignificantcross-levelinteraction,proceduresout-
11 14 teacher unsupportive reactions significantly negatively predicted
lined by Preacher, Curran, and Bauer (2006) were utilized to test
all three factors of children’s social–emotional behaviors at T2.
whether any of the simple slopes is significantly different from
Teachersupportivereactionssignificantlypositivelypredictedchil-
zero.Thesimpleslopeswerecalculatedusinganonlinecalculator
dren’s emotionally negative/aggressive and emotionally regulated
forprobing HLM 2-way interactions (Preacher, Curran, & Bauer,
behaviorsatT2,whereasteachervalidatingreactionssignificantly
2004).
negatively predicted these aspects of social–emotional behavior.
Interestingly,teacherpositivereactionsdidnotsignificantlypredict
Results children’ssocial–emotionalbehaviorsatT2.
Meansandstandarddeviationsforallvariablesandcorrelationsare Cross-level interaction effects. In Model 2, we found several sig-
presentedinTable1.Notably,childrenaveragedmid-rangelevels nificant cross-level interaction effects between a type of teacher
ofsurgency,withgoodvariabilityacrossits7-pointscale.Asindi- reactionsandchildren’ssurgency(Table2).Teacherpositivereac-
cated by the means, our teachers were more likely to show emo- tions significantly interacted with child surgency to predict chil-
tionalreactions(i.e.,positivereactions)thanbehavioralreactions. dren’s emotionally negative/aggressive behavior at T2 (Figure 1)
As for the outcome variables, on average, children showed more andemotionallyregulatedbehaviorsatT2(Figure2).Testofsim-
positive/socially skilled behaviors than negative/aggressive and ple slopes indicated that teacher positive reactions significantly
emotionally regulated behaviors at both T1 and T2. Child posi- negatively predicted children’s emotionally negative/aggressive
tive/socially skilled and negative/aggressive behaviors had behaviors at T2 only for low-surgency children. Teacher
Bassett et al. 9
Table1.Descriptivestatisticsandzero-ordercorrelationsforstudiedvariables.
Variable N Mean SD MIN MAX 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Childvariables
1.Childage(months) 228 48.71 7.17 35.00 60.00 –
2.Surgency 228 4.60 0.82 2.08 6.50 (cid:2).09 –
3.Positive/SociallyskilledT1 228 1.60 0.50 0.00 2.63 .02 .02 –
4.Negative/AggressiveT1 228 0.51 0.53 0.00 2.17 (cid:2).13* .02 (cid:2).00 –
5.EmotionallyRegulatedT1 228 0.61 0.67 0.00 3.00 (cid:2).06 .05 .05 .38*** –
6.Positive/SociallyskilledT2 228 1.67 0.47 0.00 2.83 .07 .06 .23*** (cid:2).02 .08 –
7.Negative/AggressiveT2 228 0.52 0.53 0.00 2.67 (cid:2).14* (cid:2).04 (cid:2).03 .26*** .14* (cid:2).03 –
8.EmotionallyregulatedT2 228 0.47 0.64 0.00 2.50 (cid:2).03 .00 (cid:2).03 .12* (cid:2).02 .00 .36***
Teachervariables
1.Positivereactions 75 0.39 0.17 0.09 0.82 –
2.Unsupportivereactions 75 0.05 0.05 0.00 0.20 (cid:2).23* –
3.Supportivereactions 75 0.09 0.06 0.00 0.30 (cid:2).24* (cid:2).03 –
4.Validatingreactions 75 0.07 0.06 0.00 0.25 (cid:2).11 (cid:2).08 .22þ –
Surgency(classroomaverage) 75 4.59 0.54 2.92 6.42 .20þ .20þ .01 (cid:2).18
Note.þp<.10;*p<.05;***p<.001.
Table2.Resultsofhierarchicallinearmodelinganalyses.
Positive/SociallyskilledT2 Negative/AggressiveT2 EmotionallyregulatedT2
Classroomvariance(Intercept) 0.02 0.06 0.02
Childvariance(Level1effects) 0.20 0.22 0.39
Totalvariance 0.22 0.28 0.41
ICC .09 .21 .05
(cid:2)2(74) 102.13* 133.15*** 82.19
b(95%CI) p b(95%CI) p b(95%CI) p
Model1.Level1fixedeffects
Intercept 1.70(1.63,1.78) .000 0.46(0.38,0.53) .000 0.54(0.43,0.65) .000
Age 0.01((cid:2)0.00,0.01) .194 (cid:2)0.01((cid:2)0.02,(cid:2)0.00) .034 (cid:2)0.01((cid:2)0.02,0.00) .107
Male (cid:2)0.07((cid:2)0.19,0.05) .251 0.13(0.03,0.23) .013 (cid:2)0.15((cid:2)0.31,0.02) .083
Surgency 0.04((cid:2)0.03,0.12) .267 (cid:2)0.05((cid:2)0.13,0.03) .201 (cid:2)0.03((cid:2)0.15,0.09) .619
Positive/SociallyskilledT1 0.24(0.13,0.35) .000 – – – –
Negative/AggressiveT1 – – 0.21(0.07,0.36) .005 – –
EmotionallyregulatedT1 – – – – (cid:2)0.03((cid:2)0.16,0.10) .642
Model1.Level2fixedeffects
Positivereactions (cid:2)0.02((cid:2)0.06,0.02) .379 (cid:2)0.05((cid:2)0.09,0.00) .064 (cid:2)0.01((cid:2)0.06,0.05) .775
Unsupportivereactions (cid:2)0.07((cid:2)0.11,(cid:2)0.03) .002 (cid:2)0.06((cid:2)0.11,(cid:2)0.01) .030 (cid:2)0.05((cid:2)0.10,(cid:2)0.01) .028
Supportivereactions 0.01((cid:2)0.02,0.05) .431 0.08(0.05,0.11) .000 0.05(0.01,0.09) .016
Validatingreactions (cid:2)0.01((cid:2)0.08,0.05) .662 (cid:2)0.11((cid:2)0.17,(cid:2)0.04) .002 (cid:2)0.15((cid:2)0.23,(cid:2)0.06) .001
Surgency(classroomaverage) 0.09((cid:2)0.04,0.23) .188 (cid:2)0.04((cid:2)0.19,0.11) .573 0.06((cid:2)0.10,0.23) .460
Model2.Cross-levelinteractioneffects
PositivereactxSurgency (cid:2)0.04((cid:2)0.10,0.11) .171 0.06(0.01,0.11) .031 0.10(0.05,0.16) .001
UnsupportivereactxSurgency 0.02((cid:2)0.02,0.06) .384 (cid:2)0.03((cid:2)0.00,0.06) .067 0.07(0.01,0.13) .033
SupportivereactxSurgency (cid:2)0.03((cid:2)0.09,0.03) .289 0.01((cid:2)0.06,0.08) .715 (cid:2)0.05((cid:2)0.13,0.04) .298
ValidatingreactxSurgency (cid:2)0.03((cid:2)0.13,0.08) .654 0.09((cid:2)0.02,0.21) .104 0.15(0.03,0.28) .019
Randomeffects(basedonModel1) Var df (cid:2)2 Var df (cid:2)2 Var df (cid:2)2
Classroomvariance(Intercept) 0.02 69 87.68þ 0.03 69 93.63** 0.00 69 65.00
Childvariance(Level1effects) 0.19 0.21 0.38
Randomeffects(basedonModel2) Var df (cid:2)2 Var df (cid:2)2 Var df (cid:2)2
Classroomvariance(Intercept) 0.02 69 89.04þ 0.03 69 95.38** 0.00 69 65.89
Childvariance(Level1effects) 0.19 0.20 0.38
Note.Variablewascenteredforanalysis;þp<.10;*p<.05;**p<.01;***p<.001.N¼228children(Level1)and75teachers(Level2).DegreeoffreedomsforModel1
Level1fixedeffects¼218,forModel1Level2fixedeffects¼69,forModel2Cross-levelinteractioneffects¼214.
10 International Journal of Behavioral Development 41(1)
1 1
2
e at T2 0.8 Ƅ = –.07 (–.13, –.02), p = .014 ed at T 0.8 Ƅ = –.08 (–.13, –.04), p = .000
ssiv 0.6 ulat 0.6
Negative/Aggre 00..24 Ƅ = –.01 (–.07, .03), p = .458 motionally Reg 00..24 Ƅ = –.02 (–.09, .04), p = .516
Low Surge E Low Surge
High Surge High Surge
0 0
Low High Low High
Teacher Postive Reactions Teacher Unsupportive Reactions
Figure1.Moderationofchildtemperamentalsurgencyonteacherpositive Figure3.Moderationofchildtemperamentalsurgencyonteacher
reactionsandchildemotionallynegative/aggressivebehaviorsatT2;95% unsupportivereactionsandchildemotionallyregulatedbehaviorsatT2;
ConfidenceIntervalinbrackets.N¼228childrenand75teachers. 95%ConfidenceIntervalinbrackets.N¼228childrenand75teachers.
1 1
2
ed at T 0.8 Ƅ = –.05 (–.11, .01), p = .084 e at T2 0.8 Ƅ = –.07 (–.13, –.01), p = .016
ulat 0.6 ssiv 0.6
g e
Re gr
Emotionally 00..24 Ƅ = .04 (–.02, .10), p = .172 Low Surge Negative/Ag 00..24 Ƅ = –.04 (–.09, .00), p = .081 Low Surge
High Surge High Surge
0 0
Low High Low High
Teacher Postive Reactions Teacher Unsupportive Reactions
Figure2.Moderationofchildtemperamentalsurgencyonteacherpositive Figure4.Moderationofchildtemperamentalsurgencyonteacher
reactionsandchildemotionallyregulatedbehaviorsatT2;95%Confidence unsupportivereactionsandchildemotionallynegative/aggressivebehaviors
Intervalinbrackets.N¼228childrenand75teachers. atT2;95%ConfidenceIntervalinbrackets.N¼228childrenand75
teachers.
unsupportivereactionssignificantlyinteractedwithchildsurgency
onchildren’semotionallyregulatedbehaviors(Figure3)atT2,in
1
whichteacherunsupportivereactionssignificantlynegativelypre-
dictedthisoutcomeonlyforlow-surgencychildren.Althoughmar- 2 Ƅ = –.21 (–.33, –.10), p = .000
ginally significant, teacher unsupportive reactions also interacted at T 0.8
d
with child surgency to predict emotionally negative/aggressive e
behaviors (Figure 4) at T2, in which only low-surgency children ulat 0.6
g
showed a significant negative relation between teacher unsuppor- Re
tive reactions and emotionally negative/aggressive behaviors. In ally 0.4 Ƅ = –.07 (–.16, .01), p = .091
addition,asignificantinteractioneffectwasfoundbetweenteacher on
validating reactions and child surgency on children’s emotionally moti 0.2
regulated behaviors at T2 (Figure 5). Again, the result of simple E Low Surge
High Surge
slope test indicated that teacher validating reactions significantly 0
negatively predicted children’s emotionally regulated behaviors at Low High
T2onlyforlow-surgencychildren.Insum,ourresultsindicatedthat Teacher Validating Reactions
low-surgencychildrenweremoresensitivetobothpositiveandneg-
ativetypesofteacherreactionsontheirsocial–emotionalbehaviors. Figure5.Moderationofchildtemperamentalsurgencyonteacher
validatingreactionsandchildemotionallyregulatedbehaviorsatT2;95%
ConfidenceIntervalinbrackets.N¼228childrenand75teachers.
Discussion
Inaccordancewithbothemotionsocialization(Denham,Bassett,& (Bronfenbrenner&Morris,2006),thepresentstudyexaminedhow
Wyatt, 2014; Eisenberg et al., 1998) and bioecological models preschool teachers’ emotion socialization related to change in
Bassett et al. 11
children’ssocial–emotionalbehaviors,andhowtherelationswere behaviors at T2 relative to T1 when they had teachers who
moderated by child temperamental surgency. To our knowledge, employed more supportive reactions to emotion, and (3) children
this is the first study examining the relations between preschool displayedlessemotionallyregulatedbehaviorsatT2relativetoT1
teachers’ discrete emotion socialization behaviors and children’s whentheirteachertendedtovalidatetheiremotions.Thecombined
development of social–emotional competence. Examining how impactofteachers’unsupportiveandsupportivereactionsonchil-
teachers’ specific behaviors relate to the development of child dren’semotionallynegative/aggressivebehaviors,however,canbe
social–emotional competence is beneficial for research and prac- explained by the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1989). As
tice, as it extends a growing knowledge based on more global opposed to the dyadic nature of parent–child interactions, in the
ratings. classroom context, children have an opportunity to observe a
Our results indicated that, as with parents, preschool teachers teacher–child emotional exchange without being involved in the
are significant socialization agents for young children’s social– interaction.Forexample,achildmayobservetheteacherrespond-
emotionaldevelopment.Furthermore,teachersocializationshowed ingpunitivelytoanotherchild’saggressivebehavior.Throughthis
adifferent magnitude ofinfluence onchildren’ssocial–emotional observation, the first child may learn that the teacher will punish
development depending on child temperamental characteristics. aggressivebehaviors.Basedonthislearning,thechild’sprobability
Specifically, low-surgency children were observed asmore sensi- ofexhibitingaggressivebehaviorsmaybedecreased.Similarly,ifa
tivetoteachercontingentreactionstochildren’semotions. childwitnessesateachertryingtohelpasadchildbycomfortingor
Inthefollowingsections,wefirstdiscussteacheremotionsocia- offering a solution to the problem (supportive reactions), it may
lization and child development of social–emotional competence. increaseachanceoftheirexhibitingsademotiontogettheteach-
Then,wediscusshowchildtemperamentalcharacteristicsmoder- er’ssupportivereactions.
ate the relations between teacher emotion socialization and child Another possible explanation forthe positive relation between
social–emotionalbehaviors. teacher supportive reactions and children’s negative/aggressive
behaviorsmaybeexplainedthroughtheexaminationofthefunc-
tion of supportive reactions. In particular, supportive reactions
Teacher emotion socialization: Contingent reactions included teachers’ helping behaviors by providing a strategy for
to children’s emotions either solving an emotion-eliciting problem or making the child
feel better. Teaching strategies to an emotionally aroused child
Consistentwithpreviousliteratureonthepivotalrolethatparents without calming him/her down, however, may not be effective to
play in children’s development, the present study supports the reducenegative/aggressivebehaviors.
important contribution of preschool teachers on children’s social- Asforteachers’validatingreactionsnegativelyrelatedtochil-
emotional competence. Our results, however, yielded somewhat dren’semotionally-regulatedbehaviors,thisfindingcouldalsobe
different patterns of associations in studies of parental emotion related to the behaviors included in our observational measure of
socialization. Findings consistent with parental socialization liter- children.IntheMPACobservationsystem,emotionallyregulated
ature were that (1) children displayed more positive social–emo- behaviors are defined as the child promptly verbally expresses
tionalbehaviors atT2relative toT1whentheyhadteacherswho feelings arising from a problem situation, then moves on to the
displayed fewer unsupportive reactions to emotion, (2) children same or a new activity. Thus, in this definition, first, an observer
displayed less negative social–emotional behaviors at T2 relative needs to witness the child faced with some frustrating situations
to T1 when their teacher tended to validate their emotions, and (e.g.,conflictwithpeers).Then,thechildneedstoverballyexpress
(3) children demonstrated more emotionally regulated behaviors howhe/shefeelsintheresponse tothesituation.Soitispossible
at T2 relative to T1 when they had teachers who employed more thatteachers’validatingreactionsmay,overtime,promoteareduc-
supportive reactions to emotion. Thus, as with parents, preschool tioninthenumberofconflictsbetweenchildrenintheclassroom.
teachers’behavioralandemotionalencouragementordiscourage- Becauseconflictualincidentsaretheprerequisiteforemotionally-
ment of specific emotions may assist the child in learning appro- regulatedbehaviorstobecoded,areductionofconflictmayexplain
priatesocial–emotionalbehaviors. the relation between teachers’ more validating reactions and
In addition, these findings can also augment current views on decreaseofchildren’semotionallyregulatedbehaviors.
teachers’ role in setting an emotional climate in the classroom
(Hamre&Pianta,2005).Teachers’supportiveandacknowledging
(validating)responsestochildren’semotionsmaycreateapositive Interaction between temperamental surgency
classroomclimateforchildren.Forexample,children’stimespent and teacher contingent reactions
inawarmandsafeclassroommay,overtime,resultinlessnegative
and aggressive interactions with peers. By providing supportive Consistent with the framework of bioecological model (Bronfen-
reactions,whethersuggesting awaytosolveanemotion-eliciting brenner&Morris,2006),ourfindingsshowedthesignificantinter-
problemorcomfortinganegativelyarousedchild,ateachermaybe actions between the proximal process (i.e., teacher–child
teachingchildrenabetterwaytohandlefrustratingsituations.Ifa interactions)andchildcharacteristics(i.e.,temperamentalsurgency)
teachertendstorespondtochildren’semotionswithdismissingand onsocial–emotionaldevelopment.Ourfindingsindicatedthatlow-
punitiveways,theteachermaycreateanegativeclimateconducive surgencychildrenweremoresensitivetobothpositiveandnegative
to reductions in children’s emotionally positive/socially skilled typesofteacherreactions,comparedtohigh-surgencychildren.
behaviorsovertime. Then,thequestioniswhyteachercontingentreactionstochil-
Somewhatsurprisingfindingswerethat (1)children displayed dren’semotionshaveadifferentimpactondevelopmentofsocial–
lessnegativesocial–emotionalbehaviorsatT2relativetoT1when emotionalbehaviorsdependingontheleveloftheirtemperamental
they had teachers who displayed more unsupportive reactions to surgency.Thisfindingmaybeexplainedbythedifferentbehavioral
emotion, (2) children displayed more negative social–emotional and physiological tendency between low- and high-surgency
12 International Journal of Behavioral Development 41(1)
children.Becausechildrenwithlowsurgencytendtospendmore We found moderation effects of surgency on the relations
timeobservingratherthaninteractingwithotherpeopleinanovel betweentypesofteacherreactiontoemotionandchildsocial–emo-
situation (Kagan et al., 1998), they are more likely to learn from tionalbehaviors.However,weareunabletoconcludewhetherthe
teacher’s socialization behaviors,even when they are not directly differences between low- and high-surgency children are due to
involvedintheinteractions.Inaddition,low-surgencychildrenmay observationallearningordirectsocialization.Thus,ourrecommen-
bemorevigilantandsensitivetoteachersocializationbehaviorsin dationsabovearemadeasgeneralteacher socialization-practices,
the classroom because of heightened anxiety they experience in and not specific to children with a certain temperamental charac-
novel situations (Hipson & Se´guin, 2015; Kochanska, 1997). In teristic. Based on the parental socialization literature (Gallagher,
contrast,high-surgencychildrenhavetendencytobemoreimpul- 2002;Rothbart&Putnam,2002),itcanbeassumedthatchildren
sive, seek high intensity pleasure, be more active, and less shy, with different temperamental characteristics may respond differ-
compared to their peers (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Thus, these entlytoteachersocializationindirectinteractions.Tomakefurther
childrenmaybetoobusyinongoingactivityandsocialinteraction recommendationsonhowteachersshoulddifferentlyinteractwith
inwhichtheyaredirectlyinvolved,andlesslikelytobeawareof children with different levels of surgency, further research is
teacher–child interactions in surrounding environment. Because needed.
theyarenotobservinghowteacherisrespondingtootherchildren’s
emotions,itispossiblethathigh-surgencychildrenarelesslikelyto
beaffectedbyteachers’responsetootherchildren’semotions. Limitations and future directions
Although the present study provides a unique contribution to the
Implications burgeoningliteratureonpreschoolteacheremotion-socializationas
it relates to children’s development of social-emotional compe-
Ourstudyhighlightedthesignificantrolepreschoolteachersplayas tence, there are several limitations to be addressed. First, we
socializersofyoungchildren’ssocial–emotionaldevelopment.As observed teacher emotion-socialization behaviors to any children
withparents,thewayteachersreacttochildren’semotionsconveys intheclassroom,ratherthantheteacherandaspecificchild.Thus,
a specific message of appropriateness/inappropriateness of their unlikeparentalemotion-socializationresearchinwhichsocializers’
social–emotional behaviors in the classroom. Furthermore, the behaviors were mainly examined in child–parent dyadic interac-
effectmaybenotlimitedtothechildtowhomtheteacherdirectly tion,wewerenotabletomakeanyconclusionswhethertherela-
reacted;otherchildren,especiallylow-surgencychildren,mayalso tions between teacher emotion-socialization behaviors and child
be learning about social–emotional behaviors through observing outcomeswereduetoadirectinteractionorobservationallearning.
interactionsbetweentheteacherandtheirclassmates.Thus,when Thus,infuturestudies,itwillbebeneficialtoincludeobservation
ateacherreactstoachild’semotionintheclassroom,she/heneeds ofdyadicinteractionsbetweenateacherandspecificchildreninthe
to be aware that these reactions may have an impact on other study.Withsuchdata,thefindingscanprovidefurthersuggestions
childrenintheclassroom. of whether teachers need to use different socialization techniques
The findings of the present study can provide specific recom- based on temperamental characteristics when directly interacting
mendationsofhowtorespondtochildren’semotionsintheclass- withchildren.Also,inthepresentstudy,weexaminedaunidirec-
roomforpreschoolteachers.Overall,useofconstructivetypesof tionalinfluencefromteachers’socializationbehaviorstochildren’s
reactions to children’s emotion seems to be more beneficial to social–emotionalbehaviors;however,teachers’socializationbeha-
development of social–emotional competence, rather than unsup- viors in the classroom may be affected by children’s behaviors.
portivetypes.Forexample,ifateachershowsempathicreactions Therefore,examiningdirectionalinfluencesbetweenteachersand
byacknowledgingachild’sfrustrationfornotgettingafavoritetoy, childrenwillbeneficialforfurtherunderstandingofemotionsocia-
thentheteacherisnotonlyhelpingthechildreducethefrustration lizationinthepreschoolcontext.
butalsomodelingempathicbehaviorstootherchildrenintheclass- Becausethevarianceexplainedbytheclassroomlevelwasvery
room. Similarly, children in the classroom may learn a specific small for emotionally regulated behaviors, the findings regarding
strategytosolveconflictingsituationsbyobservinghowtheteacher thisoutcomeshouldbeinterpretedwithcaution.Thisfindingmay
helps their classmate’s conflict. In addition to teaching children betheresultofnarrowlydefiningemotionallyregulatedbehaviors
positivesocial–emotionalbehaviors,thesediscreteemotionsocia- in our observation measure. Our specific definition of children’s
lization behaviors will promote emotionally supportive environ- emotionally-regulatedbehaviors(i.e.,aprerequisiteofwitnessinga
mentintheclassroom. frustratingsituationbyanobserver,andchildverbalexpressionof
Although children whose teachers showed more unsupportive theirfrustrationinneutralorpositivemanner)maybetoonarrowto
reactionsdecreasednegative/aggressive behaviors,wedonotrec- capture broader aspects of children’s emotion regulation ability.
ommend this type of reactions to be used in the classroom. If a Forexample,ifachildregulatesemotioninternallywithoutverb-
teacherconstantlyyellsatanangry/aggressivechild,thelikelihood allyexpressinghis/herfrustration,regulationisnotcoded.Thus,it
of future aggressive behaviors of the child (and other children isrecommendedtoincludeawiderdefinitionofemotionregulation
observing the interaction) may decrease to avoid the teacher’s infuturestudies.
angry reactions. However, the reduction of aggressive behaviors Inaddition,althoughwehaveasufficientsamplesizefortheteacher
may be context-specific (i.e., to avoid angry reactions from the leveltohaveunbiasedestimatesofthelevelstandarderrors(Level-2
teacher),andnotbegeneralizedacrosscontextswheretheteacher samplesizeof>50issuggestedinMaas&Hox,2005),thenumberof
is not present. Furthermore, unsupportive reactions will not help childrenineachgroupissmall(range1–5childrenpergroup).There-
childrenalleviateanegativeemotion(Eisenberg,Spinrad,&Smith, fore,areplicationstudywithalargergroupsizeiswarranted.
2004),modelthemempathicresponses,orteachthemappropriate Lastly,children’sbehaviorswereobservedonlyinthepreschool
strategiestodealwithfrustration. context,sowecannotbecertainthatthechangesinsocial–emotional
Bassett et al. 13
behaviors occurred outside of the preschool (e.g., home, neigh- Curby,T.W.,Brock,L.L.,&Hamre,B.K.(2013).Teachers’emo-
borhoodplayground).Forexample,childrenmayhavelearnednot tional support consistency predicts children’s achievement gains
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Theauthorsdisclosedreceiptofthefollowingfinancialsupportfor
Epstein,M.H.,Synhorst,L.L.,Cress,C.J.,&Allen,E.A.(2009).Devel-
theresearch,authorship,and/orpublicationofthisarticle:Institute
opmentandstandardizationofatesttomeasuretheemotionaland
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