Ricarda Scholz-Kuhn, Elena Makarova, Anat Bardi, Lukas F Litzellachner, Maya Benish-Weisman, Anna K Döring
{"title":"Children's personal values and their behavior in the classroom in the early elementary school years: mapping longitudinal trajectories.","authors":"Ricarda Scholz-Kuhn, Elena Makarova, Anat Bardi, Lukas F Litzellachner, Maya Benish-Weisman, Anna K Döring","doi":"10.1007/s10212-025-00966-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study pioneers the examination of developmental trajectories of children's personal values and their behavior in the classroom at the start of elementary school, exploring these dynamics of change in younger children. Additionally, we consider the classroom context, being an important but often overlooked setting for children's value development. In a sample of 1,184 Swiss children (Mean age at T1: 6.82 years) who self-reported their values and whose classroom teachers rated their behavior at four time points, set three to four months apart, we analyzed trajectories of personal values and classroom behaviors at both individual and classroom levels. Multilevel growth curve analyses revealed similar trajectories of value change at both individual and classroom levels, showing a substantial linear increase in values of self-transcendence (benevolence and universalism) and a substantial linear decrease in values of self-enhancement (achievement and power). The trajectories of children's value-expressive behaviors (supportive, achievement-oriented, disciplined, learning-oriented), however, did not align with these value trends and were relatively flat over time, with no significant change at the classroom level. Adding a time-lagged prediction to the multilevel growth curve models, we found that children's values positively predicted their expressive behavior one time point later, except for conservation values which did not predict future disciplined behavior. Furthermore, the higher children's supportive, achievement-, learning-oriented, and disciplined behavior was, the higher were their future values of self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness to change and conservation respectively. Our findings emphasize the bidirectional nature of these relationships, offering important implications for enhancing educational practices in elementary schools.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10212-025-00966-2.</p>","PeriodicalId":47800,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Psychology of Education","volume":"40 3","pages":"75"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12185584/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Psychology of Education","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-025-00966-2","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/6/23 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study pioneers the examination of developmental trajectories of children's personal values and their behavior in the classroom at the start of elementary school, exploring these dynamics of change in younger children. Additionally, we consider the classroom context, being an important but often overlooked setting for children's value development. In a sample of 1,184 Swiss children (Mean age at T1: 6.82 years) who self-reported their values and whose classroom teachers rated their behavior at four time points, set three to four months apart, we analyzed trajectories of personal values and classroom behaviors at both individual and classroom levels. Multilevel growth curve analyses revealed similar trajectories of value change at both individual and classroom levels, showing a substantial linear increase in values of self-transcendence (benevolence and universalism) and a substantial linear decrease in values of self-enhancement (achievement and power). The trajectories of children's value-expressive behaviors (supportive, achievement-oriented, disciplined, learning-oriented), however, did not align with these value trends and were relatively flat over time, with no significant change at the classroom level. Adding a time-lagged prediction to the multilevel growth curve models, we found that children's values positively predicted their expressive behavior one time point later, except for conservation values which did not predict future disciplined behavior. Furthermore, the higher children's supportive, achievement-, learning-oriented, and disciplined behavior was, the higher were their future values of self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness to change and conservation respectively. Our findings emphasize the bidirectional nature of these relationships, offering important implications for enhancing educational practices in elementary schools.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10212-025-00966-2.
期刊介绍：
The European Journal of Psychology of Education (EJPE) is a quarterly journal oriented toward publishing high-quality papers that address the relevant psychological aspects of educational processes embedded in different institutional, social, and cultural contexts, and which focus on diversity in terms of the participants, their educational trajectories and their socio-cultural contexts. Authors are strongly encouraged to employ a variety of theoretical and methodological tools developed in the psychology of education in order to gain new insights by integrating different perspectives. Instead of reinforcing the divisions and distances between different communities stemming from their theoretical and methodological backgrounds, we would like to invite authors to engage with diverse theoretical and methodological tools in a meaningful way and to search for the new knowledge that can emerge from a combination of these tools. EJPE is open to all papers reflecting findings from original psychological studies on educational processes, as well as to exceptional theoretical and review papers that integrate current knowledge and chart new avenues for future research. Following the assumption that engaging with diversities creates great opportunities for new knowledge, the editorial team wishes to encourage, in particular, authors from less represented countries and regions, as well as young researchers, to submit their work and to keep going through the review process, which can be challenging, but which also presents opportunities for learning and inspiration.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
