Does Self-Efficacy Mediate the Effect of Primary School Teachers' Emotional Support on Learning Behavior and Academic Skills?

SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://sagepub.com

Y

35

Self Efficacy; Elementary School Teachers; Emotional Response; Student Behavior; Academic Ability; Grade 1; Elementary School Students; Grade 6; Persistence; Self Concept; Student Attitudes; Teacher Role; Language Arts; Mathematics Instruction; Reading Skills; Foreign Countries; Reading Tests; Mathematics Tests; Rating Scales; Statistical Analysis

10.1177/0272431615624567

0272-4316

This study examined the effects of first-grade teachers' emotional support on task persistence and academic skills in the sixth grade and the mediational role of children's academic self-concept in these effects. Participants were 524 children (263 boys, X-bar age in the first grade = 7.47 years), their first-grade homeroom teachers (n = 53), and sixth-grade math (n = 34) and literacy (n = 34) teachers. Academic skills were tested, and students' task persistence was reported by teachers in the first and in the sixth grade. Students reported on their academic self-concept and their first-grade teacher's emotional support retrospectively in the sixth grade. First-grade teachers' emotional support had low facilitative effect on children's task persistence in language and math lessons, and it supported reading skills. Teacher's emotional support was related to higher self-concept in reading, and it mediated the effect of emotional support on task persistence and reading skills.

As Provided

80

2017

EJ1139132