Perceived teacher support and coping styles among the children with learning difficulties with and without social, emotional and behavioural problems

Project summary

Earlier studies show that children with learning difficulties are at a considerable higher risk of developing social and emotional problems compared to their counterparts without such difficulties. Langitudinal and follow up studies indicate that learning difficulties exert constant psychological stress across life span. The quality of teacher support og types of individuals coping styles are associated with differential trajectories in mental health outcomes. This study, therefore, aims at studying how the children with learning difficulties with and without social, emotional and behaivoural problems perceive their own coping styles and teacher support (academic and emotional).There has never been conducted a Q study on these issues earlier.

Method

This is a Q -methodological study, as the main aim of the study is to explore participants perceptions of the childrens's coping styles and teacher support . Q- methodology is specifically developed and designed to study human subjectivity, such er beliefs, opinions, perceptions, attitudes,judgements, viewpoints, etc. Q has its own philosophical, theoretical, methodological and technical foundations and procedures to examine different aspects of human subjectivity. 26 pupils with learning difficulties with and without emotional and social problems, and the parents (N = 26) and teachers (N = 27) of these children have participated in the project. Child Behaviour Checklists (CBCL) were completed by the chldren (over 11 years), and their parents and teachers to screen the incidence of emotional, social and behavioural problems in these children. The data from CBCL were analysed by using CBCL's own software program to determine the incidence of emotional, social and behavioural problems in participating children. These data were further analysed by applying SPSS for descriptive analysis on the group level(N = 39).Based on the literature review and existing knowledge, and pilot interviews ( 1 indepth interview with a pupil with learning difficulties, 1 indepth interview with a parent of a child with learning difficulties, and a focus group interview with four teachers with longstanding experience of working with children with learning difficulties), several subthemes were developed within the main topics of inquiry in this project, namely "coping styles in children" and " perceived teacher support". Q stataments were developed and sampled to represent each of these subthemes on these two topics. These q statements were sorted by the participants and placed on a scoring board, with values extending from +4 (most agree with the statement) to - 4 (most disgree), on the basis of their personal judgement or subjective evaluation. Hence, thus sorted statements receive numerical values, which, then, becomes possible for statistical analysis. The participating children and their parents sorted Q statements twice, one for "children's coping styles" and the other one for "children's perception of teacher support". The teachers, in addition to these two sortings, had a 3rd sorting on evaluating their "own support provided to these children". A statistical software called PQMethod, which is specially designed and developed to analyse Q - data, was applied to conduct data analysis, and generate /establish factors. These factors represent the commonalities of shared viewpoints among the participants, which is one of the main purposes of this study. These factors are then interpreted further qualitatively.