PARENT-CHILD AND TEACHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS: THE ROLE OF THE CHILD
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Shewark, Elizabeth
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 20, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Jenae Marie Neiderhiser, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jenae Marie Neiderhiser, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Kristin Ann Buss, Committee Member
Ginger A Moore, Committee Member
Gregory M Fosco, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Child Emotionality
Child Emotion Development
Parenting
Parent-Child Relationships
Teacher-Child Relationships
Child Problem Behaviors
Child Social Competence
Behavioral Genetics
Evocative Gene-Environment Correlation
Adoption Design
Temperament - Abstract:
- Some of the most influential relationships children have are with their parents and their teachers. Yet, much of the literature has considered family and teacher relationships as separate and have not examined the joint effects of the two in a substantive way. Fewer still have considered the possible role of heritable characteristics of the child in helping to shape the child’s relationships within the family and with teachers, although children’s emotionality has been shown to influence their relationship with their parents (Eisenberg et al., 2009; Lengua & Kovacs, 2005; Lipscomb et al., 2012; Lipscomb et al., 2011) and their teachers (Nurmi, 2012; Silinskas et al., 2015). Parent-child relationships have been shown to be influenced by heritable factors in children (e.g., Deater-Deckard, 2000; Deater-Deckard & O’Connor, 2000; Elam et al., 2014; Fearon et al., 2015; Ge et al., 1996; Knafo, et al., 2013; Lipscomb et al., 2012; Narusyte, Andershed, Neiderhiser, & Lichtenstein, 2007), and there is a growing body of literature showing how child heritable influences may also impact their teachers (e.g., Houts et al., 2010) but limited research has considered links between the two contexts (Heatly & Votruba-Drzal, 2017; Silinskas et al., 2015). The main research question of this dissertation is to examine the mechanisms by which children’s emotionality impacts their relationships with parents and teachers. The current dissertation used a genetically-informed parent-offspring adoption design to examine the following three aims: (1) examine how children’s emotionality may impact their relationships with their parents and later adjustment, while considering the role of gene-environment interplay, (2) examine how children’s emotionality may impact their relationships with their teachers and their later adjustment, using a gene-environment interplay framework, and (3) examine how heritable influences on child emotionality may influence their relationships with their parents and subsequently impact the relationship with their teachers. Advanced longitudinal analytic strategies were used, including Structural Equation Modeling, to achieve the dissertation aims. Results from this dissertation support: 1) the role of the child and children’s heritable characteristics, 2) the importance of taking a dimensional approach to children’s emotionality, and 3) though there are differences between family and teacher relationships, the two are interrelated. Elucidating the mechanisms by which family and teacher relationships influence the emotionality and later adjustment of the child could potentially assist prevention and intervention programs to effectively target aspects of these contexts. By addressing each of the above research aims, the current dissertation has refined a conceptual model (Shewark & Neiderhiser, 2019) using a behavioral genetic framework integrating the family, classroom, and children’s emotionality.