Creating a Structural Measurement Model of Socialization of Social-Emotional Competence: The Contribution of CLASS and FOCAL-T

Recently, there has been an increased emphasis on children's social--emotional competence, especially in a classroom setting. Teachers are recognized as socializers of children's social--emotional competence, but research on their exact role is lacking. On the other hand, an abundance of research has been conducted on parental socialization of social--emotional competence, and is often used in developing hypotheses for studies that examine teacher socialization. However, the home environment and classroom environment are much different; that is, the classroom is a unique environment where the socializer has to attend to the needs of many children at once, while also trying to provide pedagogical instruction. The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between two measures of teacher socialization of social--emotional competence, which together aids in the understanding of how both global and nuanced teacher-child interactions can facilitate children's social--emotional competence. Specifically, it was expected that teachers' emotional support coupled with certain teacher-child emotion interactions would be associated with direct assessments of children's social information processing and emotion knowledge, as well as teacher reports of children's social competence. Results demonstrated that considering both aspects of teacher socialization of social--emotional competence was meaningful for the understanding of teachers' socialization role. These findings may be particular use to professional development programs that use reflective feedback to demonstrate how teachers can make changes in their classroom that promote positive student outcomes.