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Adolescent Academic Success: Teacher-Child Interactions as a Buffer for Early Childhood Relational Adversity

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Abstract

Focusing on the period of 54-months (i.e., 4.5 years) through age 15, the current study explored the longitudinal influence of early childhood relational adversity (i.e., low-quality mother-child relationship) on adolescents’ academic achievement and the moderating role of high-quality teacher-child interactions. Participants included 1077 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Academic success outcomes were obtained from official high school transcripts (i.e., grade point average at ninth grade) and direct assessments of adolescents’ cognitive abilities at age 15 (i.e., language, literacy, and mathematics). High-quality teacher-child interactions throughout elementary school (i.e., first grade, third grade, and fifth grade) were measured at the classroom level and assessed using an observational tool of emotional climate and classroom management. Analyses of data revealed a significant three-way interaction. High-quality teacher-child interactions throughout elementary school moderated the relation between early childhood relational adversity and adolescent math development for children from middle and upper-class families, but not for children from lower-class families. Furthermore, child gender was found to moderate the relation between high-quality teacher-child interactions and adolescent language development. Specifically, high-quality teacher-child interactions were positively associated with adolescent female language development but negatively associated with male language development. Implications for the findings, future research, academic programs, and interventions are discussed.

Highlights

  • Longitudinally examined teacher-child interactions as a buffer for adverse academic outcomes due to early childhood relational adversity.

  • The moderating effect of quality teacher-child interactions differed for children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

  • Child gender moderated the relation between high-quality teacher-child interactions and adolescent language development.

  • Academic trajectories are malleable and highlight the importance of contextual supports on developmental outcomes.

  • Social and cultural groups’ gender ideology variations could influence teacher role expectations and interaction quality.

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  1. Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Cambrian Nauman

  2. School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

    Priscilla Goble, Edna C. Alfaro & Amy A. Weimer

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Secondary data analysis was approved by Texas State University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Texas State IRB is not the approving group for the original research. The original research was conducted by the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD).

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Nauman, C., Goble, P., Alfaro, E.C. et al. Adolescent Academic Success: Teacher-Child Interactions as a Buffer for Early Childhood Relational Adversity. J Child Fam Stud 32, 1895–1910 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02496-7

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