About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 22. Social Relationships

Abstract

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Teachers have the unique ability to influence the peer ecologies of the classrooms they oversee. However, the ability of teachers to positively shape the social context of their classroom greatly depends on their awareness of the behaviors and peer interactions occurring within. By measuring teacher attunement, it is possible to capture how well teachers and the children in their classroom agree about social climate. Teacher attunement may be particularly important for peer victimized children, as they often rely upon assistance from the teacher to cope with peer victimization (Yeung & Leadbeater, 2010). However, if teachers are misaligned in their perceptions of victimization in the classroom, well-intended interventions may be ineffective or even have negative consequences. Although existing literature demonstrates how teacher attunement to peer victimization can lead to positive change in the classroom climate (e.g., Norwalk et al., 2016), few studies have examined whether teacher attunement mitigates the negative consequences (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behaviors) of peer victimization. This study therefore examines the associations between teacher attunement to overt and relational victimization, children’s self-reported victimization, their subsequent interactions, and children’s trajectories of depression, anxiety, and aggression across the school year.

Data were collected from 1559 children across 91 fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms (Mage = 10.1, 759 girls) at three timepoints (fall, winter, spring) across a school year. In the fall, teachers, children, and their peers completed measures of overt and relational victimization. At each time point, children reported on their peers’ aggressive behavior and teachers completed measures of children’s depression and anxiety. Teacher attunement for relational and overt victimization was calculated using latent congruence models estimating latent difference and mean scores between teacher-reports and peer-reports of victimization for each child. These variables, along with fall levels of self-reported peer victimization and its interaction with teacher attunement to the child’s peer victimization, were modeled as predictors of the latent intercept and slope of the growth curve of anxiety, depression, and aggression (see Figure 1). Given research suggesting gender differences in patterns of teacher attunement to peer victimization (Dawes et al., 2023), multi-group models were used to assess gender differences in these associations.

Findings indicate that in the fall, for both boys and girls, teacher underestimation of overt victimization was associated with higher levels of aggressive behavior. For boys, teacher’s underestimation of their experiences of relational and overt victimization in the fall was associated with an increase in depression over the school year. A significant interaction between teacher attunement to relational victimization and self-reported victimization on the slope of girls’ anxiety (see Figure 2) indicated that when teachers overestimate girls’ peer victimization, they report higher levels of anxiety that decrease over the school year, perhaps as teachers intervene where they believe victimization is occurring. Reports of anxiety do not decrease when teachers underestimate peer victimization. Poor teacher attunement, therefore, may shape teacher perceptions of children’s adjustment in the classroom, and thus potentially play a role in effective teacher management and intervention in situations of peer victimization.

Author information

Author	Role
Emily Brigham, Auburn University	Presenting author
Dr. Wendy Troop-Gordon, Auburn University	Non-presenting author

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