Social Development and Schooling

Classroom environments present children with a complex array of challenges. Many of these challenges are scholastic in nature; less well recognized is the role that classroom interpersonal challenges play in children's school adjustment. During the school years, it appears that a number of connections develop among children's classroom behavior, relationships, and school adjustment. Available evidence suggests that both children's behavior toward classmates and teachers, and the relationships they form with these persons, play an important role in establishing the social, intellectual, and psychological conditions that underlie school adjustment and scholastic progress. Ultimately, it is the combination of these interpersonal factors that appears to be most prognostic of children's school adjustment.