Elementary school classroom emotional climate as a moderator of anxious solitary children’s risk for peer exclusion: a child × environment model.

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Tamara Spangler Avant (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Heidi Gazelle

Abstract: The current study examined classroom emotional climate as a moderator of anxious solitary children’s risk for peer exclusion over a three-year period from third through fifth grade. A sample of 688 children completed peer nominations for anxious solitude and peer exclusion in the Fall and Spring semesters of each grade, and observations of classroom emotional climate were conducted at the same timepoints. Cross-classified growth curves with Poisson distributions were computed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results supported the child × environment model and provide evidence that elementary school classroom emotional climate has concurrent by not long-term effects on anxious solitary children’s peer adjustment in later middle childhood. Current results suggest that supportive classroom emotional climates have protective effects on anxious solitary children by Spring semesters across all grades. Results suggest that teachers who are able to provide supportive classroom environments can decrease levels of peer exclusion in their classrooms.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2010
Keywords
classroom climate, later middle childhood, peer exclusion, social anxiety
Subjects
Classroom environment $x Social aspects $z United States.
Social phobia.
Social adjustment in children.
Solitude in children.
Anxiety in children.
Child development $x Research $z United States.

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