The Impact of Teacher Nonverbal Behaviors on Children's Intergroup Attitudes and Mental Health
Condition: Stress, Psychological; Stress, Emotional
MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Researchers in education have found that teachers often differ in their nonverbal behaviors
      toward children from different social groups and these behaviors correlate with achievement
      gaps and academic stereotypes about the groups. Early elementary school, when achievement
      gaps first emerge, is also the time when White, majority children begin to show group-level
      biases, and when racial minority children are able to detect discrimination and experience
      anxiety related to their membership in a particular social group. Therefore, if children are
      sensitive to teacher nonverbal behaviors, these behaviors could contribute to majority
      children's group biases, and may impact minority children's awareness of being in a
      negatively stereotyped group. In fact, children are adept at perceiving adult nonverbal
      behaviors and using these behaviors to guide their own behaviors and to make judgments about
      others. The primary goal of this research is to examine the effect of biased nonverbal
      teacher behaviors on group biases for children from positively stereotyped groups, and on
      affect and anxiety for children from negatively stereotyped groups. The investigators
      hypothesize that group biases in teacher behaviors will influence children's attitudes about
      groups, and will result in negative affect and anxiety for students in groups targeted by
      negative nonverbal teacher behaviors.
    

Detailed description: 
      In the present study, the investigators test whether children attend to patterns in teachers'
      nonverbal behaviors toward different groups, and use group-level differences to guide their
      own evaluations of individuals from different groups. Although existing research has found
      correlations between teacher behaviors and group-level attitudes (e.g., math/gender
      stereotypes), it is difficult to identify the causal link between the specific teacher
      behaviors and children's attitudes. Additionally, with existing groups such as those defined
      by race or gender, there are a variety of factors that could influence children's stereotype
      knowledge or bias before participating in the study. Therefore, in the present research
      participants learned about students who were members of novel social groups (defined by
      t-shirt color). Additionally, because children's intergroup preferences are influenced by
      their own group membership, the investigators also assigned children to the novel groups.
      Some children were assigned to the group that subsequently received positive behaviors from
      the teacher ('positive group'), some children were assigned to the group that subsequently
      received negative behaviors from the teacher ('negative group'), and a third group of
      children participated in a control condition where they were also assigned to a group and
      received a t-shirt, but did not see any interactions between their ingroup members and the
      teacher ('no teacher cues').

      To test whether teacher nonverbal behaviors play a causal role in children's intergroup
      attitudes, after assigning participants to one of the three groups, they viewed a series of
      interactions where students from each of two novel groups interact with a teacher, and the
      teacher's nonverbal behavior was correlated with group membership: across the interactions,
      one group always received positive teacher behaviors and the other received negative teacher
      behaviors. The investigators then assessed children's group-level stereotypes and preferences
      for new students from the positive and negative groups. Across three sets of test questions,
      the investigators asked participants who they thought was smarter, who they would prefer as a
      friend, and who they would select as a partner on an academic task.

      Based on the studies of children's stereotyping, it was predicted predicted that children in
      all three groups would report that new students in the positive group were smarter than
      students in the negative group. However, when asked whom they would like to befriend, it was
      hypothesized that children's own group membership would influence their choices: children who
      were in the group that received positive behaviors or the group that did not interact with
      the teacher would prefer to befriend students from the positive group, but children in the
      group that received negative behaviors would show no preference or prefer their own group.
      When asked who they would prefer as a partner on an academic task, it was once again
      predicted that students in the positive and no cues groups would select students from the
      positive groups. However, there were no clear predictions for participants from the negative
      group; if they were more influenced by stereotypes, they would be more likely to select
      students from the positive group and if they were more influenced by ingroup preferences,
      they would be more likely to select students from the negative group.

      Participants. Participants were 96 5- to 7-year-old children (32 per condition, Mmean age =
      6;6, range = 4;8-8;4, 48 males, 53% Multiracial, 23% White, 21% Asian) living in Hawai'i. The
      investigators were able to obtain information about current school level for 91 participants;
      of these participants, 26% were in preschool or pre-kindergarten, 69% were in kindergarten,
      and 4% were in first grade. One additional child participated but was excluded for not
      finishing the session. There was a pre-determined a stopping rule of 32 participants per
      condition based on previous studies examining children's understanding of nonverbal
      behaviors.

      Materials. At the beginning of the familiarization, participants were first presented with a
      picture of three groups of 12 children gender matched to the participant and representing a
      variety of races common in Hawaii. Each group wearing a different color shirt (orange, blue,
      or green). Then, they viewed four 17-second clips featuring an interaction between a female
      teacher and two students who matched the gender of the participant. In each video, the
      students wore green and orange t-shirts and the teacher wore black. The teacher and the
      students were unfamiliar to participants. Throughout each video, the teacher faced the
      students and the participant; the participant could only see the backs of the students'
      heads.

      In each video, the teacher first faced forward, then turned toward the student on the left
      while that student read a brief (7 s) passage. Then, she turned and faced the student on the
      right while that student read the same passage. The audio clips of the students reading were
      the same with minor adjustments made to tone and pitch so that the voices sounded different.
      The teacher then faced forward at the end of the clip. Across the videos, the teacher
      directed positive nonverbal behaviors (i.e., smiles and nods) toward students wearing one
      color while they read and negative nonverbal behaviors (i.e., frowns and head shakes) toward
      students wearing the other color while they read.

      Test trials featured photographs of children who matched the gender of the participant and
      varied by race to match the racial diversity of classrooms in Hawaii. On each trial,
      participants viewed a pair of children who were matched according to race, age, and
      attractiveness (based on adult ratings). In each pair of children, one wore an orange shirt
      and the other wore a green shirt.

      Procedure. Participants were tested individually in the lab. The study was presented on a
      monitor and an experimenter sat facing the child during the familiarization so that she was
      unaware of which t-shirt group (orange or green) received positive or negative nonverbal
      behaviors from the teacher.

      Familiarization Phase. At the start of the session, participants were told that they would be
      learning about a school with three groups of kids: oranges, greens and blues. They were going
      to pretend like they went to the school and would be in one of the groups. They then received
      either an orange, green, or blue t-shirt to wear during the study.

      After putting on the t-shirt, they were told that they were going to watch some of the kids
      in the orange and green groups do some reading for their teacher. Participants then watched
      four familiarization videos in which the teacher directed positive behaviors toward students
      from one group, and directed negative behaviors toward students from the other group.

      Test Phase. After viewing the familiarization videos, participants were told that the
      experimenter was going to ask them some questions about new kids in the orange and green
      groups. There were three blocks of four test trials. On smart test trials, participants were
      asked to select the student they thought was smarter and the investigators defined smart as
      "someone who is really good at learning stuff." On friend test trials, participants were
      asked who they would want to be friends with. On partner test trials, participants were asked
      who would pick as a partner to help them read a hard book. Participants indicated their
      answers by pointing and never received feedback. In between each block of test trials
      participants viewed one of the familiarization videos for a second time. After the three
      blocks of test trials, participants completed some additional measures that are not reported
      here.

      Design. Participants were randomly assigned to the positive, negative, or no cues condition.
      In the positive condition, they were assigned to wear a t-shirt that was the same color as
      the student who received the positive nonverbal behaviors from the teacher in the
      familiarization videos. In the negative condition, participants were assigned to wear a
      t-shirt that was the same color as the student who received the negative nonverbal behaviors
      from the teacher in the familiarization videos. In the no cues condition, participants were
      assigned to wear a t-shirt that was not shown in either the familiarization videos or test
      trials. The t-shirt color of the positive and negative groups, the order of familiarization
      videos, the order of test trial blocks, the students in each test trial block, and the
      students in the positive and negative groups varied across participants.

      Scoring. On each test trial, selecting the student who wore the same t-shirt color as the
      students receiving positive nonverbal behaviors from the teacher in the familiarization was
      scored as 1 and selecting the student who wore the same t-shirt color as the students
      receiving negative behaviors from the teacher in the familiarization was scored as 0. For
      each participant, the investigators created an average positive group score for each trial
      type by summing across each block and dividing by the total number of completed trials (4 in
      most cases, except for one participant who did not give a response on two trials, and two
      participants who did not give a response on one trial, one participant in the no cues
      condition failed to give any responses on friend trials so they were excluded from analyses
      of that variable).

      Nonverbal Coding. To assess whether being a member of a group that received positive,
      negative, or no teacher behaviors influenced participants' affect and anxiety, the
      investigators analyzed footage of the participants during the task. The investigators first
      created video clips of the participants when they were viewing the teacher directing
      nonverbal behaviors to the students in the familiarization. For each participant, there was a
      total of 8 clips: four clips of the participants viewing positive interactions and four clips
      of participants viewing negative interactions. For participants in the positive condition,
      the positive interactions were ingroup interactions and the negative interactions were
      outgroup interactions. For participants in the negative condition, the negative interactions
      were ingroup interactions and the positive interactions were outgroup interactions. For
      participants in the no cues condition, both positive and negative interactions of
      interactions were outgroup interactions. The videos were then coded for the affect and
      anxiety of the participant on a scale of -3 to 3. For affect, negative codes corresponded to
      behaviors like furrowing the brows, mouth turned down, or head shaking; for anxiety, negative
      codes corresponded to behaviors like tense muscles, withdrawn or fidgety, or displaying
      self-comfort behaviors. For affect, positive codes corresponded to behaviors like relaxed or
      raised brows, mouth turned up, or head nodding; for anxiety, negative codes corresponded to
      behaviors like relaxed muscles, open expansive posture, or fluid movement. Each coder rated
      both kinds of codes for each clip.
    

Intervention name(s): Assigned to positive group; Assigned to negative group
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): See arm description; See arm description
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Three conditions will be tested: assignment to a group that receives positive nonverbal teacher behaviors, assignment to a group that receives negative nonverbal teacher behaviors, and assignment to a group that receives no teacher behaviors.
Masking: Double (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Basic Science