关键词: 班主任协商管理行为, 学生外化问题行为, 师生关系, 相互作用关系, 交叉滞后研究

Abstract:

Students’ externalizing problem behaviors negatively impact on the current and future development of themselves, classmates and teachers. Managing students’ externalizing problems is a great challenge for teachers. Previous studies in a Western educational environment and experience of excellent domestic head teachers indicate that head teachers can effectively reduce students’ externalizing problem behaviors by adopting negotiation management strategies and building positive teacher-student relationships. Most of the existing studies emphasize the influence of teachers’ negotiation management behavior and the teacher-student relationship on students’ externalizing problem behaviors. However, conversely, the transactional model suggests that students’ externalizing problem behaviors may also affect teachers’ negotiation management behavior and the teacher-student relationship. The present study aims to explore the reciprocal relationships between head teachers’ negotiation management behavior and teacher-student relationship and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors from grades four to six in China.
The questionnaire on head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire, and the student perception of affective relationship scale was used for measurement were administered to 1407 students from grades four to six at three different periods in one school year. All the measures were reliable and valid. SPSS 20.0 and Mplus 7.4 were used to analyze the data. A cross-lagged model was used to investigate the reciprocal relationship among the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, the teacher-student relationship, and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors.
The results reflected that, after controlling for covariates, simultaneous correlation, and auto-regression of variables, head teachers’ negotiation management behavior drove the positive interaction cycle. The head teachers’ negotiation management behavior at Time 1 reduced the students’ externalizing problem behavior, improved the closeness of the teacher-student relationship, and decreased the conflicts of the teacher-student relationship at Time 2, which further affected the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, the teacher-student relationship, and the students’ externalizing problem behaviors at Time 3. The students’ externalizing problem behaviors drove the negative interaction cycle. The students’ externalizing problem behaviors at Time 1 reduced the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, decreased the closeness of the teacher-student relationship, and increased the conflicts of the teacher-student relationship at Time 2, which further affected the students’ externalizing problem behaviors, the teacher-student relationship, and the head teacher’s negotiation management behavior at Time 3.
These observations deepen the understanding of the complex reciprocal relationships between head teachers’ negotiation management behavior and teacher-student relationship and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors from grade four to six in China. Additionally, the findings have important implications for preventing and intervening in students’ externalizing problem behaviors. The results reflect that the head teachers need to be aware of the negative “driver” role of students’ externalizing problem behaviors, and consciously use the positive “driver” role of negotiation management behavior to break the negative cycle driven by students’ externalizing problem behaviors.

Key words: head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, students’ externalizing problem behaviors, teacher- student relationship, reciprocal relations, cross-lagged study