Teacher-child racial congruence and young children's preschool adjustment

• Published in: Early childhood research quarterly 2023-01, Vol.63, p.249-263
• Main Authors: Knox-Lane, Terrance, Bailey, Craig-S., Ponnock, Annette, Denham, Susanne-A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Diversity; Preschool adjustment; Teacher-child racial congruence
• ISSN: 0885-2006; 1873-7706
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.12.013

•Teacher-child racial congruence predicted preschool adjustment outcomes differently based on gender.•Girls were generally better adjusted to their preschool classrooms than boys.•Girls were most adjusted to their preschool classrooms when taught by racially congruent teachers.•Boys were most adjusted when nested in classrooms taught by teachers of a different race, especially White boys. The purpose of this study was to explore how adjusted preschoolers were to preschool when their teachers were either racially congruent or racially incongruent and whether gender and moderated these associations. In this study, 259 preschoolers (50% boys; Mage = 53.84 months; 63% White, 37% Black) in 44 classrooms at 16 federally- and privately-funded centers/preschools were rated for their adjustment to preschool using teacher (N = 44; 100% women, 52% White, 38% Black, 2% Asian, 5% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 2% Latine) reports and direct child assessments. Multi-level structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously address the non-independence of the data by estimating higher-level variance components (i.e., variance on a total of six preschool adjustment outcomes out due to the classroom and due to the center) as well as correlated outcomes. Accounting for classroom-level variance as well as school-, classroom-, and child-level covariates, these analyses revealed main effects for gender and teacher-child racial congruence, and not for race, but higher-order interactions were significant. White girls with White teachers scored higher than White girls with Black teachers on four outcomes. Black girls with Black teachers scored higher than Black girls with White teachers on three outcomes and lower on two outcomes. White boys with White teachers scored lower than White boys with Black teachers on three outcomes. Black boys with Black teachers scored lower than Black boys with White teachers on five outcomes and higher on one outcome. Magnitudes of associations found ranged from small to large across the analyses. These findings add to the growing literature concerning teacher racial congruence suggesting its association with preschool adjustment may be moderated by race and gender of the child. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms accounting for these associations.