Citation

Peets K, Kikas E. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 2015; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

a Institute of Psychology , Tallinn University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15374416.2015.1079778

PMID

26630257

Abstract

Researchers have increasingly started to pay attention to how contextual factors, such as the classroom peer context and the quality of student-teacher interactions, influence children's aggressive behavior. This longitudinal study was designed to examine the degree to which benefits and costs of different teaching practices (child-centered and child-dominated) would be dependent on the initial peer-group composition (aggregate levels of aggression and victimization at the beginning of first grade). Teachers provided ratings of aggression and victimization (N = 523 first-grade students; M age at the beginning of first grade = 7.49 years, SD = 0.52). Information about different teaching practices was obtained via observations. Our results show that whereas child-centered practices are beneficial in high-victimization classrooms, child-dominated practices inhibit the development of aggression in low-victimization classroom contexts. Our findings highlight the importance of moving beyond main-effect models to studying how different contextual influences interact to promote, or inhibit, the development of aggression.

Language: en