Abstract
The present study examined boys’ race in moderating the association between teacher–child relationship quality, measured by closeness and conflict, and boys’ language gains and conduct problems change scores during Pre-K. The study was conducted using data from the National Center for Early Development and Learning’s (NCEDL) Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten and the NCEDL-NIEER State-Wide Early Education Programs Study (SWEEP Study). Participants were 1,228 boys in 660 pre-K classrooms. On average, pre-K teachers had closer relationships with White boys than Latino boys and more conflictual relationships with Black boys than boys of other races. The results from the moderation analyses suggest that close teacher–child relationships serve as a promotive factor for Latino and Black boys’ teacher-reported language gains. Simultaneously, teacher–child relationships characterized by high levels of conflict predicted larger change scores in conduct problems for Black boys compared to boys of other races. The findings from this study highlight the impact of teacher–child relationships for the development and learning of boys of color. The present study may inform future professional development efforts to enhance positive teacher–child relationships for children of color in early childhood settings.
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Public-use data files from the ICPSR Child and Family Data Archive collection were used for the present manuscript. Early, Diane, Burchinal, Margaret, Barbarin, Oscar, Bryant, Donna, Chang, Florence, Clifford, Richard M., … Barnett, W. Steven. Pre-Kindergarten in Eleven States: NCEDL’s Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten and Study of State-Wide Early Education Programs (SWEEP). Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-10-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34877.v1
Notes
We use the term Black as a pan-ethnic description of anyone from the African diaspora including, but not exclusively limited to, African Americans, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latino/a, or any other group that identifies as Black and/or having any ancestral heritage from Africa.
Consistent with experts in the field, we use Latine to refer to individuals whose cultural background originated in Latin America. In U.S. academic circles, Latinx is being used as a gender-inclusive term to refer to people from Latin American backgrounds, but Spanish-speakers find that Latinx is unpronounceable in Spanish. Therefore, we have opted to use the gender-inclusive term Latine, commonly used throughout Spanish-speaking Latin American communities (Melzi et al., 2020).
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The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work. The datasets in the ICPSR Child and Family Data Archive collection are available for free though funding by contract #HHSP233201800021C from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), an office of the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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Goldberg, M.J., Iruka, I.U. The Role of Teacher–Child Relationship Quality in Black and Latino Boys’ Positive Development. Early Childhood Educ J 51, 301–315 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01300-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01300-3