Attention in the preschool classroom: the relationships among child gender, child misbehavior, and types of teacher attention

Research in preschool classrooms has shown that boys receive more attention from their teachers than girls do, and also that misbehavior is positively associated with teacher attention. However, these previous findings relate primarily to total attention, ignoring the many different types of teacher attention that are likely to have different antecedents and consequences. Additionally, previous studies have not investigated the way teachers treat difficult children when they are not misbehaving. This study examined the relationships among child gender, child misbehavior, and specific types of non‐disciplinary teacher attention. An ethnically and sociometrically diverse sample of 153 preschool children and their teachers were observed through videotapes of preschool classrooms. Girls received more positive interactions than boys, and misbehavior predicted commands unrelated to discipline. Both gender and misbehavior were involved in the prediction of rewards. When these relationships were examined within Puerto Rican, Black, and Caucasian groups, some differences in attention distribution appeared.