The relationship of depressive symptomatology and academic achievement motivation in the school to the social responses of teachers

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was to discern whether specific types of behaviors exhibited by children in the school environment elicit negative social responding on the part of the teacher. The current study postulated that self-reported child depressive symptomatology and academic achievement motivation were two specific behavioral patterns that serve to elicit negative social responding. Participants in the study were 54 elementary students, their parent, and teachers. Each student completed the Child Depression Inventory. The teachers completed the Teacher's Ratings of Student Interpersonal Attractiveness, Teacher's Ratings of Interpersonal Rejection Toward Students, and the Teacher Ratings of Academic Achievement Motivation. Parents completed a background information form and the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist. Zero-order correlations, hierarchical regression analyses, and cross-lagged panel correlations were used to test four hypotheses.; Findings and conclusions. Higher levels of self-reported child depressive symptomatology were significantly associated with higher levels of interpersonal rejection at Time 1 and was a significant predictor of teachers' ratings of interpersonal attractiveness at Time 1 and 2. Higher levels of academic achievement motivation were associated with lower levels of interpersonal rejection at Time 1 and were associated with higher levels of interpersonal attractiveness. The strength of the temporal relationship between self-reported depressive symptomatology and negative social responding and academic achievement motivation and negative social responding could not be examined because three of the four measures did not meet the necessary assumptions for cross-lagged panel correlations. The current findings of this study suggest that there are specific types of behaviors within the school environment that elicit negative social responding on the part of the teacher. Specifically, the results suggest that self-reported child depressive symptomatology and deficits in academic achievement motivation are specific types of behaviors that contribute to this negative social responding.