The Impact of Parent-Teacher Relationships on Student Behavior During Intervention and One Year Later

Authors

Amanda Witte, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Susan M. Sheridan, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

National Center for Search on Rural Education, 2014

Comments

Copyright Amanda Witte, Susan Sheridan 2014

Abstract

Background

• Children with social-behavioral concerns are at high risk of developing long-term, pervasive problems.

• Interventions which aim to decrease negative behaviors and increase social and adaptive skills across both home and school settings have the potential to be particularly effective.

• However, families of students with social-behavioral problems also tend toward disengagement from, or limited connection with, schools or other service-delivery systems (Dishion & Stromshak, 2006).

• Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2008), is a family-school partnership intervention designed to reduce child behavior problems and increase child adaptive skills.

• The quality of the parent-teacher relationship may critically influence the connection between CBC and student outcomes.

Purpose

• To evaluate whether improvement in parent-reported quality of the parent-teacher partnership moderated the long-term efficacy of CBC on parent- and teacherreported student adaptive skills and externalizing problems. Research Question

• Does parent-teacher partnership quality moderate the effectiveness of CBC for improving student behavior?

Significance

• This study provides important insight into the long-term implications of parentteacher relationships on student behavior.

Method Participants: • 132 kindergarten through 3rd grade students, their parents, and their teachers.

• Students were mostly male (78%) and Caucasian (86%).

• Parents were mostly female (89%) and Caucasian (91 %).

• Teachers were predominantly female (960/0) and Caucasian (100%).

Measures:• Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale-Parent Report (PTRS; Vickers & Minke, 1995).

• Collected at enrollment (pre-intervention/wave 1) and 12-weeks after enrollment (post-intervention/wave 2)

• Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004).

• Collected at enrollment (pre-intervention/wave 1), 12-weeks after enrollment (post-intervention/wave 2), fall and spring of following academic year (maintenance period/waves 3 and 4)

Research Design and Study Variables: Teachers were randomly assigned to a treatment group (received CBC) or control group (treatment as usual), and participating students within a classroom were assigned accordingly.

• Independent Variables: Experimental condition and Time

• Dependent Variables: Student externalizing problems and adaptive skills

• Moderator Variable: Change in the parent-reported quality of parent-teacher partnership from wave 1 to wave 2 (defined as the presence of a half standard deviation above or below the average change scores)

Analysis

• A three-way ANOVA was used to determine whether experimental condition (treatment, control), Time (waves 1-4 of data collection), and partnership quality change (high, low) interact to influence students' adaptive skills and externalizing behavior.