Classroom-level adversity: Associations with children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors across elementary...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Sociology of Education

Background:

• Growing concerns about youth social-behavioral maladjustment in the U.S.
• Limited research on how collective classroom characteristics influence individual student behavior.
• Need to understand educational contexts exacerbating anxiety, depression, aggression, and misconduct.

Purpose of the Study:

• Examine concurrent and longitudinal relations between classroom-level adversity (CLA) and children's internalizing/externalizing behaviors.
• Investigate differences in these relations for boys and girls across elementary school.
• Identify potential intervention points to mitigate negative effects of CLA.

Main Methods:

• Teachers reported on classroom-level adversity factors (e.g., family life, academic/social readiness, health).
• Mothers reported on their child's internalizing and externalizing behaviors across first, third, and fifth grades.
• Autoregressive, lagged panel models controlled for covariates like prior behavior, socioeconomic status, and class size.

Main Results:

• Classroom-level adversity (CLA) was concurrently and positively associated with externalizing behaviors for all children.
• CLA was concurrently and positively associated with internalizing behaviors for first-grade girls, but not boys.
• Indirect effects indicated CLA influenced subsequent behaviors through yearly maladjustment.

Conclusions:

• Classroom adversity significantly predicts children's externalizing behaviors and, for young girls, internalizing behaviors.
• Interventions aimed at reducing CLA or its impact are crucial for improving student social-behavioral functioning.
• Findings underscore the importance of the collective classroom environment on individual student outcomes.