Teacher and Parent Assessments of the Social Competence of Inner-City Children: Issues of Gender within Race

Abstract

Teachers and parents assume major responsibility in shaping children's social behaviors. To determine their relative perspectives, teachers and parents rated the social skills of inner-city Black elementary school students. Consistent with national findings, teachers perceived students as having more social skills and fewer problem behaviors than did parents, and viewed girls as more socially appropriate than boys. Teachers and parents differed most on their social skill assessments of female students; parents gave their daughters significantly less favorable evaluations than did teachers on four of six subscales. The adults agreed most on their assessments of male students. The discussion highlights parents' social skill perceptions according to gender and the implications for social development and intervention for male and female students. Behavioral problems continue to be a major concern for teachers at every level of public education. Recognizing the key role of parents in the social development of their children, educators and other professionals understandably look to the home for possible answers. Social learning and cognitive theorists have documented family influences relative to social modeling (Bandura, 1973), coercive interactions (Patterson, 1982), child-rearing practices (Eron, Huesmann, & Zelli, 1991), and parental beliefs and behaviors (Okagaki & Frensch, 1998) as factors contributing to aggression, antisocial behaviors, school achievement, and other developmental concerns in children. A natural outgrowth of these understandings is the importance of the parent-teacher alliance in fostering overall school success for children. The beneficial effects of parental education involvement on improvements on student attitudes, attendance, and achievement have been well documented (Chavkin, 1989; Epstein, 1987). Poor and minority parents are commonly portrayed as being underinvolved in their children's schooling processes (Chavkin & Williams, 1993; Marion, 1980; Shea & Bauer, 1985). Parental involvement is an important issue given that their children, especially their male children, are disproportionately referred for disciplinary actions (Irvine, 1990) and for placement in programs for students with serious emotional disabilities (SED) (Executive Committee of the Council for Children with Behavior Disorders, 1989; Maheady, Algozzine, & Ysseldyke, 1985; McIntyre, 1993). Lack of involvement, however, should not be equated with lack of interest (Chavkin, 1989). Most parents, regardless of background, care about their children's school adjustment and progress. There is good evidence to suggest that schools can be instrumental in increasing parent participation among urban populations (Epstein,1987); however, it is important to note that this collaboration requires mutual home-school understanding and purpose. The importance parents place on the development of social behaviors in their children is an issue that has not been extensively investigated. Mize (1995) reports that the most common request of parents of preschool children pertains to social skills; yet Baumgart, Filler, and Askvig (1991) found that parents of children with disabilities placed less priority on social skills than did the children's teachers. Although the parents in the Baumgart et al. study tended to place more importance on social skills for older students with mild or moderate disabilities, they gave significantly lower ratings overall to social skills than did teachers and other educators. Due to their close associations with children and their abilities to compare students across groups, teachers are most often requested to be respondents on children's assessment measures (Cartledge & Milburn, 1995). Teacher ratings have been shown to be good initial evaluations of children's social behaviors (Greenwood, Walker, Todd, & Hops, 1979; Walker et al., 1988). Parents are another frequent source of childhood social assessments. …