Toward an understanding of stress in the classroom: the role of individual differences and physical design factors
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University of California, Irvine
Abstract
There has been increasing recognition in the educational research literature
of the role played by the physical environment in the learning process, including
possible contributions of classroom design factors to childhood stress. Most of this
research suffers from a failure to adequately consider how intraindividual capacities
and abilities may moderate environmental impacts. The present study proposes
that the effects of school settings on children can best be understood from an
interactionist perspective that assesses the joint influence of individual differences
and physical design factors.
Individual differences (coronary-prone behavior pattern and arousal-seeking
tendency) and environmental factors (classroom density, openness of perimeter,
window area, desk arrangement, and the presence or absence of secluded study
space) were examined as predictors of four measures representing some of the
behavioral and psychological costs of adapting to stress (absenteeism, task
inattention, fidgeting behaviors, and cooperativeness). The data analyzed were collected from 110 children, representing 14 elementary school classrooms, via a
variety of methods: student interviews, behavioral observation of students in the
classroom, teacher questionnaires, and detailed surveys of the physical classroom
setting. For the most part, multiple regression analyses showed that predicted
interactions between individual differences and design factors made significant
contributions to the explained variance in the outcome measures, after statistical
adjustment for the main effect contributions and the variance due to the social and
instructional context of the classrooms (as measured by the Classroom Environ ment Scale). In addition, scores on the outcome measures were determined by
different combinations of person and environmental variables.
While methodological shortcomings associated with the use of a nonequiva lent control group design limits the interpretability of the findings, the results
provide preliminary empirical support for current transactional models of stress and
coping. Furthermore, this study extends the research literature by suggesting that
an interactionist formulation may yield significant effects that otherwise may be
obscured by only examining the main effects of classroom conditions on learning
in children. The interaction of person and environmental variables may provide
more explanatory power than is afforded by a separate examination of either
person or setting variables alone.
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Citation
Jue, G. M. (1990). Toward an understanding of stress in the classroom: The role of individual differences and physical design factors. Retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertations. (AAT 9104563)