Promoting Healthy Students through Healthy

Relationships in the Classroom

Wendy Craig, Ph.D., OC, FRSCDepartment of Psychology

Scientific Co-Director PREVNetQueen’s Universitywww.prevnet.ca 1

Relationships matter!!

PresenterPresentation NotesData across 308,849 individuals, followed for an average of 7.5 years, indicate that individuals with adequate social relationships have a 50% greater likelihood of survival compared to those with poor or insufficient social relationships.

The magnitude or the size of the effect is comparable with quitting smoking and it exceeds many well-known risk factors for mortality (e.g., obesity, physical inactivity).

Emotional Wellbeing and Teacher Relationships

Teacher Relationship

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The Central Role of Relationships

• Outcomes: – Physical Health, Healthy Lifestyle, Emotional Health, Positive

Behaviours, Aggression, Substance Use, Risky Behaviours, Academic Achievement.

• Parent relationships mattered for 23/24 health outcomes.• Teacher relationships were related to 8/24 outcomes. • School relationships mattered for 13/24 outcomes. • Peer relationships mattered for 14/24 outcomes • Neighbourhood relationships mattered for 12/24

outcomes. • Trends over time

Pepler, Debra, Craig, Wendy, & Haner, Dilys (2012). Healthy Development Depends on Healthy Relationships, Public Health Agency Canada.

PresenterPresentation NotesTeacher Relationships

High quality teacher relationships predicted healthy eating, high quality of life, mental health well-being, prosocial behaviour, lack of cannabis use, and high academic achievement

School RelationshipsHigh quality relationships at school are protective against:psychosomatic symptoms, behaviour problems, peer victimization, having delinquent friends, smoking, drinking alcohol, engaging in sexual activity School relationships promote positive outcomes:healthy eating, high quality of life, mental health well-being, prosocial behaviour, helmet use, and academic achievement

Peer RelationshipsHigh quality peer relationships are protective against:psychosomatic symptoms, bullying others, peer victimization, cannabis use High quality relationships promote:healthy weight, overall health, healthy eating, physically activity, quality of life, mental health, prosocial behaviour, and academic achievement.

Neighbourhood relationshipsHigh quality relationships within the neighbourhood are protective against:injuries, psychosomatic symptoms, behaviour problems, and drinking and driving Neighbourhood relationships promote positive outcomes:healthy eating, being physically active, high quality of life, mental health well-being, prosocial behaviour, helmet use, and academic achievement

Classroom Management

• A well managed classroom is one in which the relationships are respectful, accepting, and caring.

• Social climate of a classroom is the sum of relationships in the classroom.

• Promoting positive classroom relationships is critical to prevent bullying

Shifting the Focus in Classroom Management

Shift in focus:• Away from individual problems and onto creating healthy

environments to foster child and youth development• Away from reducing disobedience and onto developing

prosocial behaviour, self regulation, and capacities for problem solving and self direction.

Overall goal:“young people arrive at adulthood with the skills, interests, assets, and health habits needed to live healthy, happy, and productive lives in caring relationships with others” (p. 387).

Classroom Management and Relationships are Transactional

Teachers have positive relationships

with students

Students are motivated to learn

and relate positively with teacher

Students are cooperative and

engaged in learning

What is a Nurturing Classroom Environment?

A nurturing environment is one in which the teacher:• Teaches and reinforces prosocial behaviour, self

regulation, and skills for adulthood.• Monitors and limits opportunities for negative

behaviour• Minimizes toxic and stressful events (e.g.,

victimization, witnessing bullying at school).• Provides students with a sense of being cared for,

valued, and appreciated for their unique characteristics

Teachers are Leaders in the Social System of the Classroom

Teachers shape relationships in the classroom by:

• Modeling the relationship styles they expect• Managing interaction patterns and activities through

social architecture• Scaffolding self regulation and effective social strategies• Promoting the productive engagement• Helping students with relationship difficulties to develop

social capacities that enhance how they are perceived• Promote different dimensions of status (e.g., creativity,

caring and interpersonal skills, humour, etc.)

Bullying as a Traumatic Experience

• Bullying is a traumatic experience that occurs in the context of peer interaction.

Stress and Brain Development

• The brain adapts to the experiences that a child has:– If the child has positive experiences, brain adapts

positively for learning, memory, and regulation.– If the child has stressful experiences, brain adapts

negatively, with too much or little response to stress.– As the brain develops, the gene expression adapts as

well, leading to further positive or negative brain development.

– Experiences leave a chemical “signature” on genes, which can be temporary or permanent

– Affect how easily the genes are switched on or off.

PresenterPresentation NotesNational Scientific Council on the Developing ChildWorking paper #1. Young children develop in the environment of relationships

Shared Trauma Perspective

Bullying Incident

Fear Physiological ArousalMaladaptive Cognitions

Bullying and Physiological Arousal

Bullying Physiological Arousal

Situational Emotional

Dsyregulation

Victimization Physiological Arousal

SituationalEmotional

Dsyregulation

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Bullying and Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescents

Bullying Rejection Cognitions

Situational Emotional

Dsyregulation

Victimization Rejection CognitionsShame

Situational and Dispositional Dsyregulation

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Brain Activity of Victimized Youth Experiencing Social Exclusion

• Peer victimized group showed increased neural response in areas related to:– fear and arousal processing– emotional memory– emotional experience– processing of faces

• Extent of the altered neural response in victimized individuals was proportional to the degree of experienced bullying

Sticks and stone but words….

• Duration and number of places related to internalizing, externalizing problems, and relationships issues.

• People relive and re-experience social pain more easily than physical pain and emotions are more intense and painful

• Physical pain is often short lived but not social

Victimization and PTSD Symptoms

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Role of Peers in Bullying

Most universal bullying prevention programs attempt to change bystander behavior (Bradshaw, 2015)

A meta-analysis of 11 bullying prevention programs with a specific focus on bystander behavior found that they increased bystander intervention (Polanin, Espelage, Pigott, 2012)

Bullying as a Traumatic Experience

• Witnessing bullying associated with:o Somatic complaintso Depressiono Anxietyo Substance use

Jones & Barlow, 1990Rivers et al., 2009Zinzow et al., 2009

PresenterPresentation NotesThe factors associated with interpersonal violence are not just experienced by youth who are directly involved in the traumatic event. Youth who witness parental and community violence experience more psychosocial difficulties than their peers who do not witness these traumatic events (Zinzow et al., 2009).

Exposure to bullying is no exception; children who witness bullying experience numerous psychosocial difficulties, including somatic complaints, depression, anxiety, and substance use

Brain Scans of Defenders

• Defending behaviour is associated with brain activation in areas associated with emotional empathy and perspective taking.

• Emotional empathy is related to the mirror neuron system and facilitates the motor representation of other’s emotions accompanied by affective reactions to the emotion.

Intervention needs to systemically address trauma experienced by all those involved to

prevent mental health consequences

PresenterPresentation NotesRelationship Based intervention work!�

Key Learnings :Successful Bullying Prevention is about

Successful Bullying Prevention is about…

Teachers’ Social-Emotional ApproachTeachers’ warmth and sensitivity are related to students’:

– Academic engagement– Social competence– Emotional adaptation– Friendships in school

Teachers with a social-emotional approach in classroom:– Promote respect, patience, cooperation, awareness, sharing,

validating students’ thoughts and emotions– Make suggestions about how to collaborate with peers, handle

negative emotions and deal with setbacks

Teachers’ Relationships with Individual Students

Teachers’ interactions with istudents shape:

– Perceptions of belonging and mattering– Willingness to engage and learn challenging lessons– Academic self concept– Increases or decreases in problem behaviours– Quality of student’s relationships with peers– Classmates’ perceptions of the student

Need to go beyond a focus on problems and scaffold for positive

behaviours

Strategies for Scaffolding for Healthy Relationships

Individual focus Group focus

Coaching and Scaffolding

Adults need to coach and support children and youth as they struggle with the challenges of growing up in a socially complex world.

Positive Interventions• Break down the learning tasks• Providing many opportunities for practice to

generalize. • Understand that children learn best and are most

motivated to learn when they know that the person teaching them really cares about them.

• Acknowledge that children learn through reinforcement.

• Teaching complex relationship skills takes ongoing feedback, monitoring, and support.

• Learning about how to have positive relationships is a life-long journey.

• Monitoring and following up.

Teachers’ Support of Positive Peer Dynamics- Social Architecture

When teachers are aware of friendships, support isolated students, and reduce social inequities, students report:

– Stronger sense of peer community– Higher school bonding and motivation– Less rejection leading to victimization

When teachers support positive connections among students:

– Improved social and academic adjustment– Fosters community of learners

At the end of the day… it is all about

Creating environments and relationships that support optimal development of

children and youth!

PresenterPresentation NotesSwimming analogy

Healthy relationships are a promotional andpreventative tool for healthier and safer

communities.www.prevnet.ca

Promoting Healthy Students through Healthy Relationships in the ClassroomSlide Number 2Slide Number 3Slide Number 4The Central Role of RelationshipsClassroom ManagementShifting the Focus in Classroom ManagementClassroom Management and Relationships are TransactionalWhat is a Nurturing Classroom Environment?�Teachers are Leaders in the Social System of the ClassroomBullying as a Traumatic ExperienceStress and Brain DevelopmentShared Trauma Perspective Bullying and Physiological ArousalBullying and Emotional Dysregulation in AdolescentsBrain Activity of Victimized Youth Experiencing Social ExclusionSticks and stone but words….Victimization and PTSD SymptomsRole of Peers in BullyingBullying as a Traumatic ExperienceBrain Scans of DefendersSlide Number 22Key Learnings :�Successful Bullying Prevention is aboutTeachers’ Social-Emotional ApproachTeachers’ Relationships with Individual StudentsNeed to go beyond a focus on problems and scaffold for positive behavioursStrategies for Scaffolding for Healthy RelationshipsCoaching and ScaffoldingPositive InterventionsTeachers’ Support of Positive Peer Dynamics- Social ArchitectureAt the end of the day… it is all aboutSlide Number 32