Children's Classroom Behavior The Unique Contribution of Family Organization

• Published in: Journal of family psychology Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 355 - 371
• Main Authors: Johnson, Vanessa K, Cowan, Philip A, Cowan, Carolyn Pape
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-09-1999
• Subjects: Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Childrearing Practices; Children & youth; Classroom Behavior; Classroom behaviour; Couple and family; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Families & family life; Family functioning; Family Relations; Family Structure; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Parent Child Relations; Parents; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Relationship; Social psychology; Teacher Attitudes; Young children; Human; Social environment; School age; Social behavior; School adaptation; Group cohesiveness; Systemic theory; Family environment; Primary school; Child; School environment
• ISSN: 0893-3200; 1939-1293
• DOI: 10.1037/0893-3200.13.3.355

Sixty-three 2-parent families participated in a study
examining whether family organization-cohesion, parental
leadership, and strong family subsystems-is related to
teachers' perceptions of children's classroom behavior in 1st
grade. Independent observers assessed whole-family organization
and the quality of the interaction process in marital and parent-child
dyads from videotapes of mothers, fathers, and children working
together on a structured (difficult puzzle) and unstructured
(building a model) task. Results indicate that adaptive family
organization during the difficult puzzle task makes a significant, unique
contribution to the prediction of children's externalizing behavior, over and above the quality of marital interaction and parenting style.
No significant relationship was found between adaptive family organization in
either task and teachers' perceptions of children's internalizing
behavior.