Session Information
05 SES 16 A, Symposium: Deviant Behaviour as an Interactive and Contextual Process
Symposium
Contribution
Much of the research on the role of school factors in student behaviour has focused on secondary level, with disengagement seen as playing an important role in students acting out within class. In contrast, research on younger children has tended to emphasise the role of individual and family factors in shaping their socioemotional difficulties, with less attention to the way in which behaviour is constructed within the school and classroom. This paper attempts to contribute to this field by using longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI, Smith/Darmody 2021) study to examine changes in student behaviour between five and nine years of age. The outcome is teacher-assessed externalising behaviour, measured using the conduct and hyperactivity subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). At the individual level, externalising behaviour among nine-year-olds is more prevalent among children whose families report financial strain, who live in urban areas and who have a chronic illness or disability. Levels are also higher for children from lone-parent and migrant-origin families. Externalising behaviour is much lower among girls and among those whose parents have higher levels of education. Behaviour is also responsive to the overall school context, being more prevalent in schools with a higher concentration of socio-economic disadvantage. Externalising behaviour is also shaped by the interaction between the child and the context, being higher where the teacher views the relationship as conflictual and where the child has more negative attitudes to school and school subjects. Further multilevel analyses will explore whether patterns of externalising behaviour vary across individual schools and between teachers. The second part of the paper examines whether externalising behaviour at age nine is influenced by experiences around the transition to primary school. Behaviour at age five is strongly predictive of behaviour four years later but experience of the transition to school also has a longer-term impact, with higher levels of externalising behaviour among children who regularly complained about school. Both teacher-child conflict and closeness at age five are associated with higher levels of externalising behaviour at age nine, suggesting that there may be an optimal balance in the quality of this early relationship. In sum, the paper points to a complex dynamic between school and class context and externalising behaviour from early on in primary school, suggesting the need to examine and address behaviour difficulties within context.
References
Smyth, E. & Darmody, M. (2021): Risk and protective factors in adolescent brhaviour. The role of family, school and neihborhood characteristces in (mis)behaviour among young people. The Economic and Social Research Institute: ESRI Research Series No. 119.
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