PERCEIVED ECOLOGICAL CONGRUENCE ACROSS FAMILY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS - IMPACT ON THE CONSISTENCY OF BEHAVIORAL-PATTERNS AND ADAPTATION AMONG CHILDREN AND YOUTH/

This research investigated the relationship of congruence between clas sroom and family environments as experienced by children and consisten cy of behavioral adaptation across these settings as reported by teach ers and parents. Assessments of perceived family and classroom environ ments, self-reported psychological distress, and parent and teacher be havior ratings of a community sample of first- to sixth-grade youth (N = 297) were obtained. Factor analysis of children's ratings of percei ved classroom climate yielded three underlying dimensions: cohesion, a chievement emphasis, and organization. Similarly, analyses of children 's ratings of perceived family climate yielded cohesion, achievement e mphasis, and control factors. As expected, greater incongruity in chil dren's reports of cohesion and in levels of achievement emphasis acros s settings was associated with greater divergence between parental and teacher ratings of behavioral adaptation. In addition, there was less agreement in parent and teacher reports of children's behavior when c hild reports of classroom cohesion and all three family dimensions div erged. Similarly, greater perceived divergence in family achievement e mphasis and all three classroom dimensions yielded higher levels of di sagreement in behavior ratings across settings. Psychological distress was generally not associated with greater environmental incongruence. Thus, experiences of differential climate across settings appeared to be linked with patterns of situationally specific behavioral adaptati on, rather than more global distress.