Children's task persistence in first grade: The role of parent-child and teacher-child relationships

Abstract

The present study investigated the extent to which the quality of both parent-child and teacher-child relationships uniquely and interactively relates to a child's task persistence in first grade. Furthermore, the study also examined the role of a child's task persistence in the quality of their relationships with their parents and teachers after controlling for the child's gender, temperament, academic performance, and parental education level. The study followed Lithuanian children from the beginning (T1, n = 337) to the end (T2, n = 341) of first grade, along with their parents (T1, n = 347; T2, n = 323) and first-grade teachers (T1, n = 24; T2, n = 25). At the start of first grade, the children completed reading, spelling, and math (i.e., addition and subtraction) performance tests. The parents and teachers filled out questionnaires at the beginning and end of these students’ first-grade academic year. The parents reported on the quality of their relationships with their children and on their children's temperament, while teachers reported on their relationship quality with each student and their task persistence. First, the results indicated that a conflictual relationship between the students and their teachers was related negatively to subsequent task persistence. Second, the moderation results indicated that if the teacher-child relationship was close, then a close parent-child relationship longitudinally was related positively to the children's task persistence. Third, the results indicated that a child's higher level of task persistence was associated longitudinally with a closer relationship with their first-grade teachers.