Parents’ and teachers’ views on the psychosocial adjustment of students with and without a history of early grade retention

Abstract

The study compared teachers’ and parents’ views about elementary school children’s psychosocial adjustment with and without a history of early grade retention. The sample included retained and non-retained students currently in Grades Two and Four (age range 7.5 to 11.6 years) in Cypriot public schools. The retained students experienced early grade retention either in kindergarten or Grade One and, therefore, were one year older than their current classmates. Both parents and teachers of all children completed a psychosocial adjustment inventory designed to assess social, emotional, and school competence as well as behaviour problems. The findings indicated important differences between teachers and parents in their evaluation of children’s psychosocial adjustment, but notable similarities in consistently evaluating early-retained children lower on all aspects of adjustment. Teachers evaluated all students lower than parents in terms of behaviour, school, and social competence. Both groups, however, considered retained students lower in social and school competence regardless of grade level. The implications of these findings in relation to evaluation aspects of psychosocial adjustment and the practice of early-grade retention are discussed.