Elementary School Climate and Child Behavior Problems

描述（由申请人提供）：研究表明，儿童的行为轨迹受到小学行为气候的影响，学校和课堂环境的质量可能对青少年和成年期的行为结果产生长期影响。此外，一些改善学校行为氛围的干预措施已经证明有效，而其他有希望的方法目前正在评估中。然而，为了评估全国范围内对学校干预计划的潜在需求，需要更多关于学校行为气候在自然环境下的影响的信息。特别是，目前很少有关于美国小学环境质量的研究，也很少有人尝试使用非实验数据来估计学校行为气候对儿童行为的影响。此外，研究设计和范围的一些限制适用于现有文献。本研究将通过评估小学行为气候质量模型，以及行为气候对儿童行为问题影响的模型来解决这些局限性，这些模型使用的数据来自一项具有全国代表性的、非实验性的幼儿园纵向研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research suggests that children's behavioral trajectories are influenced by the behavioral climates of their elementary schools, and that the quality of school and classroom environments may have long-lasting effects on behavioral outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. Moreover, several interventions to improve the behavioral climate of schools have demonstrated efficacy, while other promising approaches are currently being evaluated. Additional information about the effects of school behavioral climate in naturalistic settings is needed, however, in order to evaluate the potential demand for school intervention programs nationwide. In particular, there have been few studies of the current quality of elementary school environments in the U.S., and few attempts to estimate the effects of school behavioral climate on child behavior using non-experimental data. Also, several limitations in study design and scope apply to the existing literature. This proposed study will begin to address these limitations by estimating models of the quality of elementary school's behavioral climates, and models of the effects of behavioral climate on childhood behavior problems using data from a nationally-representative, non-experimental, longitudinal study of kindergartners. The specific aims of this study are: 1) to estimate the proportion of elementary schools in the U.S. with disruptive learning environments; 2) to identify elementary school and teacher characteristics that are significantly associated with the disruptiveness of classrooms and with school climate; and 3) to estimate the effects of children's school environments on the persistence of behavior problems from kindergarten through third grade. The data will come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study -- Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a longitudinal study of approximately 22,000 children attending kindergarten at baseline. Effects of school climate on child behavior will be estimated using multilevel models that allow for interactions between school climate and behavior problems at baseline. The study will provide a more comprehensive picture of the status of schools and their effects on child behavior than has been available previously.