Supportive Teacher-Child Interactions For Preschool Children Who Display Disruptive Behaviors

This dissertation is comprised of three independent studies, each of which examined observed teacher-child dyadic interactions in preschoolers rated by their teachers as displaying elevated externalizing behaviors. Paper 1 applied an implementation science framework to identify patterns of teachers’ practices—in the context of a teacher-child relationship intervention—that were associated with improvements in the quality of teacher–child interactions. Paper 2 examined the extent to which teachers’ dyadic interactive behaviors enhanced preschoolers’ positive engagement with tasks in the classroom, beyond the quality of classroom-level teacher-child interactions. Finally, Paper 3 investigated teachers’ emotion talk and its intersection with dyadic teacher-child affective qualities in promoting children’s positive engagement with the teacher in the classroom. Together, these studies contribute to our knowledge on how and why dyadic teacher-child interactions support positive classroom adaptation for preschoolers whose teachers perceive them as displaying elevated externalizing behaviors.