G5 Doctoral dissertation (article)
Children’s and adolescents’ adaptation during educational transitions : the role of temperament and relationships with parents and teachers (2024)
Lasten ja nuorten sopeutuminen koulutuksen siirtymävaiheissa : temperamentin, vanhempien ja opettajien merkitys

Jaruseviciute, V. (2024). Children’s and adolescents’ adaptation during educational transitions : the role of temperament and relationships with parents and teachers [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Jyväskylä. JYU Dissertations, 785. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0156-2

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Jaruseviciute, Vilija

eISBN: 978-952-86-0156-2

Journal or series: JYU Dissertations

eISSN: 2489-9003

Publication year: 2024

Number in series: 785

Number of pages in the book: 1 verkkoaineisto (75 sivua, 61 sivua useina numerointijaksoina, 3 numeroimatonta sivua)

Publisher: University of Jyväskylä

Place of Publication: Jyväskylä

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: English

Persistent website address: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0156-2

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Abstract

The current dissertation examined the role of children’s and adolescents’ temperament (i.e., surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control) and their relationships with parents and teachers on student adaptation during educational transitions. Study I (n = 409) focused on the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1, Study II (n = 848) focused on the transition from primary school to lower secondary school and Study III (n = 901) focused on the transition from lower secondary school to upper secondary education. The results of Study I revealed that the higher prosocial behavior Grade 1 children had the closer relationships they formed with their teachers, and the higher externalizing problems children had the more conflicts their parents and teachers perceived. In addition, children’s temperamental surgency predicted relationships with teachers via lower prosocial behavior and higher externalizing problems. Study II showed that closeness with mothers and low conflicts with teachers promoted better adjustment before the transition, whereas closeness with teachers and low conflicts with mothers was beneficial across the transition. In addition, results uncovered two underlying mechanisms via which the quality of relationships with mothers and teachers act as a mediator and a moderator between temperament and adolescents’ socioemotional functioning. Finally, Study III showed that although most adolescents were well-adjusted (65%) during the transition to upper secondary education, three smaller subgroups of adolescents were identified with different combinations of adjustment difficulties: moderate prosocial behavior and high externalizing problems across the transition (26%), decreasing prosocial behavior and increasing externalizing problems before the transition (7%), and decreasing prosocial behavior and increasing externalizing problems after the transition (2%). The dissertation revealed that students with different temperaments may adapt differently to educational transitions, thus support from parents and teachers is especially important. Higher temperamental effortful control and support from parents and teachers may facilitate students’ adaptation during educational transitions. On the other hand, conflicts with parents and teachers, especially among students with higher temperamental negative affectivity, may result in difficulties in adapting.

Keywords: children (age groups); young people; temperament; self-regulation (psychology); adaptation (change); school attendance; transitional phases; parent-child relationship; teacher-pupil relationship; doctoral dissertations

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2024