Like your students, like their families? Teacher perceptions and children's socio-emotional-behavioral functioning

Abstract

To explore family engagement and children's social, emotional, and behavioral functioning, we compare two competing multilevel path models that use structural and relational measures of family engagement. The first examines the association between family engagement (teacher-perceived support from families and director-reported involvement offerings) and children's outcomes (anger-aggression, anxiety-withdrawal, social competence, and behavioral self-regulation) via the child–teacher relationship. The second examines the association between the child–teacher relationship and children's outcomes via family engagement. Results were similar for both models, though Model 1 was a better fit, suggesting that teachers' perceptions may “flow” from families to children. In both models, the relational component of family engagement had more associations than the structural component. We discuss implications regarding family engagement supports.