JOURNAL

British Educational Research Journal. Vol. 40, December 2014, pp. 986–1004.

TITLE

The Effect on Students’ Emotional And Behavioural Difficulties Teacher-Student Interactions,

Students’ Social Skill and Classroom Context.

AUTHOR

Maria Poulou

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

i. To examine the degree to which teacher-student interactions, students’ social skills and
classroom context uniquely contributes to the prediction of emotional and behavioural
difficulties, at elementary school.
ii. To establish an organizational framework for the interpretation of emotional and
behavioural difficulties.

METHODOLOGY

Using questionnaire.

962 primary students (470 males and 492 females) with ranged from 11 to 12 years old . It was
including 25 state mainstream elementary school in central, south and northern Greece.

Four instruments are : (a) QTI for teacher–student interactions, (b) MESSY for students’ social
skills; (c) CGS for classroom context; and (d) SDQ for students’ emotional and behavioural
difficulties.

MAJOR FINDINGS

There are four models which are a) QTI scales loads on SDQ scale b) MESSY scales loaded
on SDQ scales c) CGS scales loaded on SDQ scales d) MESSY and QTI scales loaded on
SDQ scales.
The best model is the final model, in which it appears that MESSY subscales (appropriate social
skills and inappropriate assertiveness) have stronger loadings on almost all SDQ scales
(emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and peer, most above .20 and some around .40), than the
loadings that has QTI (influence and proximity) on SDQ scales (below .20), and CGS
(below .20).

It appears from the final model, that emotional problems are effected by influence (–.12),
proximity (–.16), inappropriate assertiveness (.23) and autonomy (–.17) (Figure 7). Conduct
problems are influenced by proximity (–.16), appropriate social skills (–.19), inappropriate
assertiveness (.50), and motivation tasks (–.12). Hyperactivity is effected by influence (.12),
appropriate social skills (–.12), inappropriate assertiveness (.41), and motivation tasks (–17).
Peer problems are influenced by appropriate social skills (–.19), inappropriate assertiveness (.22)
and autonomy (–.12).

These findings show that the emotional and behavioural difficulties are influenced by teacher–
student interactions, classroom goal structure and mainly students’ lack of appropriate social
skills, and inappropriate assertiveness.

CONCLUSION

These findings found that students’ possession of social skills had a prominent role in the
prediction of emotional and behavioural difficulties, while teacher–student interactions and
classroom context also affected students’ emotional and behavioural difficulties. This
perspective provides educators with a theoretical and practical tool for understanding emotional
and behavioural difficulties.