Teachers’ Emotional Expressiveness and Coping Reactions to Students’ Emotions: Associations with Students’ Social-Emotional Competences and School Adjustment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Beside research evidence on the importance of teachers’ emotion socialization behaviors and students’ social-emotional outcomes, there is less evidence on teachers’ discrete emotion socialization behaviors and students’ social and emotional outcomes. The current study investigated early childhood teachers’ self-reported expression of emotions and coping strategies with students’ negative emotions as potential predictors of young students’ social-emotional competence and school adjustment. Administration of the Self-Expressiveness in the Classroom Questionnaire (SEQ), the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES), the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE) and the Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment measures resulted in data from 832 kindergarten and first grade primary teachers and 662 of their students. Research Findings: Teachers’ positive expressions of emotions were significant predictors of students’ social and emotional competences and school adjustment, teachers’ responses to students’ negative emotions were not significant predictors of students’ social and emotional competence and school adjustment, whereas the interaction between teachers’ expression of emotions and teachers’ responses to students’ negative emotions predicted students’ social and emotional competences and school adjustment. Practice or Policy: Findings contribute to our understanding of the intersection of teachers’ self-reported expressiveness and coping reactions with students’ negative emotions for students’ social and emotional behavior at schools.