Children’s narrative representations of peers and teachers in 3 new classroom scenarios

Abstract

ABSTRACT Narrative Story-Stem Tasks (NSST) assess young children’s perceptions of close relationship qualities via the spontaneous narratives they create in response to story beginnings using doll-like figures. Most NSST research to date has focused on family relationships. This study extends this research to children’s perceptions of relationships with teachers (caregiving and attachment) and peers (exploration, mutuality, and aggression) in school settings. Three new story-stems were created for this purpose. A racially and economically diverse sample (n = 39) was recruited from two school systems in the U.S. As predicted, girls were more likely to enact relational aggression in their narratives. Children attending the higher SES school were significantly more likely to enact representations of teachers as caregivers, and representations of parental and teacher caregiving were significantly associated. Parent-reported perceptions of their children’s teachers were significantly associated with children’s narrative representations of attachment behaviour directed toward teachers. Implications for policy and services are discussed.