Denise Buote

1
The Role of School-Based Significant Adults in
the Promotion of Social, Emotional and Academic
Adjustment Among Children

• Denise Buote Kimberly Schonert-Reichl
• The University of British Columbia
• Presentation at the
• Annual Meeting Association for Moral Education
• Dana Point, California
• November 12, 2004

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The VSB/UBC Partnership Identifying the
Essential Ingredients for Promoting Social
Responsibility in Children

• A Developmental Approach
• Creation of a Caring Context
• A Strengths-Based Approach
• Attention to Implementation and Evaluation

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School Assets

• Effective involvement in the school
• Participation in school activities
• Supportive school environment
• Connectedness to school
• Relationship with one significant adult

4
Protective Factors

• Werner (1989) clustered protective factors into
  three major categories

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Protective Factors

• A protective factor can be defined as a mechanism
  which results in the amelioration (protection)
  of the reaction to a factor that in ordinary
  circumstances leads to a maladaptive outcome
• (Rutter, 1987)

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Human Beings of all ages are happiest and able
to deploy their talents to best advantage when
they experience trusted others as standing
behind them. (Bowlby, 1973)
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A Strengths-Based Approach The Role of Schools

• Non-Related Significant Adults
• Previous research has linked significant adults
  to at risk childrens resilience
• There is very little research that has examined
  this relation in the school context, especially
  elementary school.
• Almost no research has asked children to describe
  the characteristics of the adults whom children
  identify as significant.

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Schools as communities of care

• Communities are.places where members care about
  and support each other, actively participate in
  and have influence on the groups activities and
  decisions, feel a sense of belonging and
  identification with the group, and have common
  norms, goals and values.
• (cf. Bryk Driscoll, 1998 Goodenow, 1993a,
  1993b Higgins et al., 1984 McMillan Chavis,
  1986 Solomon, Watson, Battistich, Schaps,
  Delucchi, 1992 Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lesko,
  Fernandez, 1990)

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What we have learned from children and
adolescents
Early adolescents, when asked via an open-ended
questionnaire to list people who were important
to them, the majority of early adolescents listed
a non-related adult. (Blyth et al., 1982)
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Children and Adolescents Who Are At-risk Who
Identify at Least One Caring Adult

• Higher levels of self-understanding
• Better psychological adjustment
• Fewer conduct disorders
• Better coping skills
• More positive self-image
• Heightened interpersonal skills
• Better adjustment and coping with ADHD
• Less problems with drugs and alcohol
• Higher academic achievement
• Better school attendance

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Cityview Elementary Community School Surrounding
Neighbourhood

• BC Stats Local Health Area reports that
  Vancouver is 1 crime region in Province. Ranks
  1of 78.
• The Vancouver Police Department corroborates
  high crime statistics in Hastings area
  Prostitution ranks 1 or 2 Violent crime
  highest in City.
• The area in general is characterized by high
  crime and socially at risk children.

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Cityview Elementary Community School

• 670 children (425 English Program)
• Dual Track French Immersion District Program
• Inner City School
• Meal Programs
• Community School
• Annex (175 K-4)
• 50 ESL, 50 language groups

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Cityview Elementary Community School Support

• 6 Family Programs
• 31 Programs for Children (aside from activities)
• 8 Programs for Parents
• 10 Programs for Community and Families
• This year there are over 55 volunteers working
  weekly in the school.
• This school year about 3900 people will be served
  by the various programs.

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Method

• Participants
• 158 students from the 5th-7th grades.
• 50 girls,
• 42 first language English, 35 Chinese, and 23
  other,
• Of the 238 children who participated in Time 1
  (2003), 66 of children participated in Time 2 in
  2004 (n 158)

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Measures

• School/Academic Dimensions
• School Self-Concept (SDQ Marsh, 1998)
• Sense of Classroom as a Community Scale
  (Battistich et al., 1997)
• Academic Self-Efficacy (Wentzel, 1998)
• Behavioural Dimensions
• Self-ratings of Prosocial Behaviours (Bandura et
  al., 1996)

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Measures (contd)

• Socio-Emotional Dimensions
• General Self-Concept (SDQ Marsh, 1998)
• Prosocial Goals (Wentzel, 1994)
• Social Responsibility Goals (Wentzel, 1994)
• Perspective-Taking (Davis, 1983)
• Empathy (Davis, 1983)
• Teacher supportiveness (Roeser et al., 1996)
• Resiliency Inventory (Song, 2003)

Time Two only
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Research Questions

• 1. Do children identify a significant school
  based non-related adult?
• 2. If so, do children who identify at least 1
  significant adult differ on social and school
  competence as compared to those children who do
  not identify anyone or children who identify more
  than one significant adult?
• 3. What aspects do children identify as being
  important to them in terms of their relationships
  with these significant adults?
• 4. What is the relation between relationship
  stability to childrens social, emotional, and
  academic competence?

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Significant Adults at Cityview

• Students were asked the following
• Make a list of the adults from the school who are
  important to you.
• Choose one adult and make a list of all the ways
  that this person is important to you.

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Results Significant Adults

• TIME ONE
• 54 children did not name an adult
• 45 children named at least one adult
• 59 children named two or more adults

• TIME TWO
• 49 children did not name an adult
• 35 children named at least one adult
• 74 children named two or more adults

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Results Year One - Significant Adults

• Children made comments reflecting the following
  adults
• Teachers ...62
• Coach...4
• Counsellor..14
• Youth and Childcare Worker.6
• Other (Administrators, Daycare Staff)14

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Results Year Two - Significant Adults

• Children made comments reflecting the following
  adults
• Teachers ..66
• Counsellor.11
• Youth and Childcare Worker3
• Other (Administrators, Daycare Staff)20

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Categories

• Supportive teaching (adult is actively involved
  in promoting positive learning experiences for
  the child).
• She taught me times tables
• He teaches us good things.
• Nurturant/supportive (adult supports the child
  with managing emotions demonstrates warmth and
  caring)
• She makes me forget all the bad things in my
  life.
• She is very kind to me.
• Positive personality traits (adult possesses
  personality traits that are positive, such as
  humor, trustworthiness)
• Trustworthy
• Playful
• Other (not able to be coded in above)

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Time 1 School Dimensions
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Time 1 Social Responsibility Dimensions
25
Time 1 Empathy Prosocial Behaviour
26
Time 2 School Dimensions
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Time 2 School Relatedness
28
Time 2 Social Responsibility Dimensions
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Time 2 Resiliency Dimensions
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Time 2 Resiliency Dimensions
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Change from Year One to Year Two

• Research Question
• What is the relation between continuity and
  discontinuity in relationships with significant
  school-based adults and dimensions of social,
  emotional and academic competence?
• In order to address this question, a series of
  multivariate analyses (MANOVAs) were conducted.
  
• Dependent variable change scores
• (Time 2 -Time 1)
• positive number positive change

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Change from Time One to Time Two

• Students were categorized into one of four
  groups reflecting changes or stability in their
  relationships with adults from time one to time
  two.
• Group one no one in year one no one in
  year two
• Group two no one in year one someone in
  year two
• Group three someone in year one no one in
  year two
• Group four someone in year one someone in
  year two

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Change from Time one to time two Empathy and
Perspective Taking
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Change from time one to time two Prosocial
Goals and School Self-Efficacy
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Future Directions

• Examining closer the reasons why children
  identify no one as being significant
• In depth interviews as to reasons why
  connectedness status changes for certain students
  and the impact of these changes
• Exploring the ways in which teachers connect with
  students who are considered more challenging
• Exploring childrens experiences of being in
  relationship with significant adults at school