The Development of young children's responses to affectionate teacher behavior

With an increasing number of young children entering day care, describing the affection in teacher-child relationships is essential for understanding its impact. The research literature suggests that not only the amount of teacher affection is important; children who have more positive and affectionate behavior themselves have better social outcomes (e.g., Jacobsen & Wille, 1986). Thus, discovering how teachers can foster children's positive behavior is important for understanding the effects of day care. Zanolli, Saudargas, and Twardosz (1990), in an observational study of day care teachers and toddlers, found that smiling was the affectionate behavior that was most likely to elicit positive child responses. Positive responses for other affection (verbal and touch), however, depended on teacher smiling. Teachers who smiled more frequently received more positive responses to other affection. This study raised the possibility that positive child responses to smiling are present at the beginning of day care attendance, and that positive responses generalize to other affection over time when teacher smiling is frequent. In the present study, 10 children were observed from their first day of attendance in a toddler day care classroom. Three questions were of interest: 1. Is frequent teacher smiling linked to positive child responses to other affection? 2. Do positive child responses generalize from teacher smiling to other affection over time? 3. How do positive responses to teacher affection develop when new staff are introduced? Results showed that positive responses to other affection occurred most often when teacher rates of smiling were high. Smiling received more positive responses initially than did other affection, which only received positive responses after a "warming up" period of two weeks. In addition, teachers who smiled most frequently produced the biggest increases in positive child responses to other affection. This pattern of results was obtained for new teachers as well as for established teachers. These results supported the hypothesis that positive child responses generalize from smiling to other affection over time as a function of teacher smiling. Possible explanations for this generalization from operant, ethological, and attachment theories, the possible effects of frequent smiling on social development, and implications for teacher training were discussed.