Relationship of early childhood teacher guidance beliefs and reported actual practices on child behavioral outcomes

Teacher beliefs on child guidance and discipline practices are critical components in understanding how teachers' beliefs and approaches to guidance influence teachers' interactions and classroom management practices with children. This study explored teachers' beliefs on guidance and teachers' beliefs on reported actual guidance practices in relation to child behavioral outcomes as children engaged with teachers, peers, and tasks within the context of classroom situations. Teacher beliefs on guidance and beliefs on reported actual guidance practices were assessed using two teacher belief surveys: the Early Childhood Guidance Belief Survey (ECGBS) and the Early Childhood Guidance Belief Survey-Actual Practice (ECGBS-AP). Child engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks was examined using the inCLASS instrument. The sample consisted of 30 lead teachers and 120 children in early childhood classrooms in urban schools in a Midwest metropolitan area.;Hierarchical multiple regression and correlational statistical tests were used to determine the relationship of the predictor variables (child demographics, ECGBS, and ECGBS-AP) and the outcome variables of interest based on the four factors of inCLASS. The combined results of the main predictors, ECGBS and ECGBS- AP, were non-significant; however, ECGBS was a positively statistically significant predictor on the Factor of Teacher Interactions and uniquely predicted 7% of the variance in the model. These results suggest that teachers who held authoritative guidance beliefs scored higher on the inCLASS factor of teacher-child interactions, demonstrating positive teacher-child engagement and positive communication in the classroom.;The interaction effect between ECGBS and ECGBS-AP was statistically significant with 6% of explained variance on the Factor of Teacher Interactions. This indicates the strength of the relationship between ECGBS and ECGBS-AP, which suggests that the level of ECGBS predicts how strongly ECGBS-AP relates to Teacher Interactions. In child demographics, gender was the only predictor that was positively statistically significant on the Factor of Conflict Interactions with higher mean scores for males than for females. These findings contribute to the growing body of research that demonstrates that higher authoritative guidance scores relate to more positive teacher-child interactions.