The educative relationship in primary school: aggressive tendencies and pro-social behaviour

Abstract

The general objective of this work is to analyze how pupils’ aggressive tendencies and pro-social behaviour can influence the perception of a given educative relationship, both from the point of view of the pupil and of the teacher. This study shall focus particularly on aggressive tendencies and pro-social behaviour envisaged as indicators of social adaptation’s capability. The research has been conducted on a sample of 249 pupils and 30 teachers, belonging to 15 primary school classes in the province of Turin. Both teachers and pupils agree that children with difficulties of social adaptation appear to maintain less positive relationships: their lower pro-social behaviour matches lack of closeness in relationships and the increase of affective distance within them. Moreover, augmented aggressive tendencies have been discovered among pupils with higher levels of conflict. This research shall highlight how the social and anti-social modalities of interaction of a child may influence a teacher’s perception of their relationship, much more than the pupil’s evaluation of his or hers cognitive abilities. For what concerns the association between relationship and capability of adaptation, it shall be first shown how the pupil tends to view himself or herself as a more or less pro-social and antisocial individual; then, how such perception influences the pupil’s connection with the teacher. At the same time, it shall be given evidence of how the teacher tends to judge the bond with a pupil on the basis of the mental image he or she has created of the child and of which the child may not be entirely aware.

Key words: Educative relationship, teacher-pupil, aggressiveness, pro-social behaviour.