Major
Psychology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2020
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Over the years, school disciplinary approaches have been largely punitive, with increased suspensions and expulsions for minor disruptive behaviors stemming from a zero-tolerance culture (Smith, 2015). One alternative to this style of discipline, is authoritative school climate. Its emphasis of structure and support has shown positive effects academically and behaviorally, but it is less clear how it affects emotional and interpersonal outcomes for youth (Cornell et al., 2016). The current study expands upon these positive influences of authoritative school climate and how it can ultimately affect emotion regulation and socialization in adolescents. Participants completed questionnaires, such as the Discipline Structure and Student Support subscale from the 54-item Authoritative School Climate Survey (Konold, 2014), the 36-item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), and the 55-item Positive Youth Development Inventory (Arnold, Nott, & Meinhold, 2012). Survey data was analyzed using linear multiple regression analyses to see whether authoritative school climate was negatively associated with difficulties with emotion regulation and positively associated with social competence. A moderation analyses was used to examine a possible difference in boys’ and girls’ relationship with the variables. Results showed no significant relationship between authoritative school climate, emotion regulation, and social competence. There was no significant difference in the relationship for boys and girls. A lack of relationship between the variables could be due to the fact that adolescents learn socioemotional skills through their parents and not teachers. Future research should include qualitative data for a deeper understanding of student perceptions and possible gender differences.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Cara DiClemente, M.A., Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program; Maryse Richards, Ph.D., Professor, Clinical Psychology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
The Relation of Authoritative School Climate with Emotion Regulation and Social Competence in High School Adolescents
Over the years, school disciplinary approaches have been largely punitive, with increased suspensions and expulsions for minor disruptive behaviors stemming from a zero-tolerance culture (Smith, 2015). One alternative to this style of discipline, is authoritative school climate. Its emphasis of structure and support has shown positive effects academically and behaviorally, but it is less clear how it affects emotional and interpersonal outcomes for youth (Cornell et al., 2016). The current study expands upon these positive influences of authoritative school climate and how it can ultimately affect emotion regulation and socialization in adolescents. Participants completed questionnaires, such as the Discipline Structure and Student Support subscale from the 54-item Authoritative School Climate Survey (Konold, 2014), the 36-item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), and the 55-item Positive Youth Development Inventory (Arnold, Nott, & Meinhold, 2012). Survey data was analyzed using linear multiple regression analyses to see whether authoritative school climate was negatively associated with difficulties with emotion regulation and positively associated with social competence. A moderation analyses was used to examine a possible difference in boys’ and girls’ relationship with the variables. Results showed no significant relationship between authoritative school climate, emotion regulation, and social competence. There was no significant difference in the relationship for boys and girls. A lack of relationship between the variables could be due to the fact that adolescents learn socioemotional skills through their parents and not teachers. Future research should include qualitative data for a deeper understanding of student perceptions and possible gender differences.