Developmental links between disobedient behavior and social classroom relationships in boys with psychiatric disorders in special education

In mainstream education, positive relationships
with teachers and peers have been found to positively influence
children’s behavioral development. However, high levels
of classroom behavior problems may hinder the formation of
such positive relationships. Therefore, findings from mainstream
education cannot be generalized to special education.
The present study investigated the developmental links between
disobedience and positive as well as negative relationships
with teachers and peers among boys in restrictive special
educational settings. At three assessment waves across one
school year, teacher-reports of teacher-child closeness and conflict,
and peer-reports of peer acceptance, rejection and disobedience
were collected among 340 boys (mean age=10.1 years,
SD=1.58, range=5–13) with psychiatric disorders receiving
special education. Autoregressive cross-lagged models were
fitted to explore the nature of these developmental links. The
impact of boys’ age was examined using multiple group analyses.
Findings supported the importance of teacher-child conflict,
but not closeness, and positive and negative peer relationships
for the development of boys’ disobedience, with a stronger
effect of negative than positive relationships. However,
teacher-child and peer relationships were not longitudinally
related and the effect of boys’ age was minimal. This study
extends prior research by suggesting that, despite differences in
educational setting and severity of behavior problems between
children in mainstream and special education, reducing negative
classroom interactional patterns is most important in
preventing the development of problematic classroom behavior
in boys with severe social-emotional and behavioral difficulties.