Citation

Portnow S, Downer JT, Brown J. J. Sch. Psychol. 2018; 68: 38-52.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Fordham University, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Society for the Study of School Psychology, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jsp.2017.12.004

PMID

29861030

Abstract

The present study uses data from 35 third through fifth-grade urban classrooms and 531 students to examine the extent to which student-level social and emotional skills (e.g., low hostile attribution bias and low aggressive interpersonal negotiation strategies) and emotionally supportive learning environments predict aggressive behavior over the course of a school year.

RESULTS of multiple regression analyses indicated that across teacher-reported measures of aggressive behavior, more classroom emotional support over the course of the school year predicted less aggressive behavior in spring, particularly for children whose hostile attribution bias decreased over the course of the year. According to a child-reported measure of aggressive behavior, declines in aggressive interpersonal negotiation strategies over the course of the year also predicted less aggressive behavior in spring. Moreover, these results operated similarly across all children. Implications for SEL programs are discussed.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggressive behavior; Classroom; Emotional support; Social-emotional learning programs; Social-emotional skills; Student