Teacher practice, social skill and problem behavior: a comparative, correlational and predictive study

Despite of scarcity of studies that investigating the interactions that occur in the school environment, it is known that the behavioral of children and teachers are influenced each other and it may enhance or impair child development. This study aimed to describe, compare, correlate and predict behaviors of teachers in interaction with studentes, about the educational social skills, negative educational practices, problems behavior and children's social skills, controlling variables like schooling (pre-school and school children), gender (boy and girls) and diagnostic indicators for problems behavior. The sample consisted of 283 children and their teachers in the public shools: 113 children were preschoolers and 170 were students. Teachers filled out a questionnaire diagnosis for behavioral problems, a questionnaire about children's social skills, and a semi-structured interview which investigates the interactions between the teacher and his student. Data were categorized according to own instructions of the instruments and then conducted statistical analysis to compare different groups (t Student's and Chi-Square Test), association between categories with the Pearson coefficient, and predictive value for Regression Analysis Binary logistic. The results indicated that teachers are less skilled with clinical groups for problems behavior, boy and schoolars. Negative educational practices were positively associated with problem behaviors and negatively with social skills. Educational social skills were positively correlated with the children's social skills in all groups. Furthemore, boys children and indicated as clinics for problems behavior had lower scores for social skills and high frequency of problem behaviors. It is concluded that interventions with teachers, in the development and learning areas, should focus on the interactions that occur at school, helping these professionals to identify the consequences of their behaviors... (AU)