Date of Award

2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

College of Education, Doctoral Program

First Advisor

Marie Donovan

Abstract

Child inhibition can be learned consciously and unconsciously, and it is highly dependent on the quality of interaction with adults (i.e., parents and teachers). However, little is known about the impact of teachers’ emotional management and sensitivity on the development of inhibition skills among students in early childhood classrooms. This dissertation takes an integrative approach to explore whether teacher-child relationship and teacher self-efficacy have a bidirectional connection and how they work to impact child inhibition, directly and indirectly. The present research utilizes the large nationally represented Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2010-2011, sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics in hypothesis testing. Secondary data analysis was performed on the ECLS-K:2011 kindergarten data (n ≈ 18,000) focusing on child development and early learning in schools across the United States. The specific impact of teacher-child relationship and teacher self-efficacy on child inhibition and the possibility of an indirect influence on the outcome variable due to the interplay between the two independent variables were gauged through regression and mediation analyses. According to the study findings, high-quality teacher-child relationship (i.e., high levels of closeness, low levels of conflict) strengthened child inhibition in social skills and approaches to learning. Further, teacher-student conflict mediated the impact of teachers’ sense of efficacy on student inhibition outcomes, whereas teacher-student closeness did not. Teacher self-efficacy, meanwhile, did not significantly affect the influence of teacher-child relationship on child inhibition. Theoretical and practical implications of the study findings were discussed.

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