The role of inclusive teaching in mediating the effects of personality and emotionality on adolescents' socio-emotional adjustment

Empirical contributions support the importance of inclusive teaching in affecting students’ academic functioning (Dewsbury & Brame, 2019). However, no studies have examined the role played by inclusive teaching in influencing the association between students’ individual differences and their socio-emotional adjustment. This study aims at filling this gab by investigating the effects of adolescents’ personality and emotionality on their adjustment. Participants were 132 high school students from Rome (mean age 16,42 years; 52,3% boys). Students’ personality (academic self-efficacy, reward/punishment sensitivity), emotionality (positive/negative emotions) and socio-emotional adjustment (quality of friendship, internalizing/externalizing problems) were self-reported by students, while teachers’ inclusive teaching was other-reported by students. We implemented two path analyses models: a first model in which we considered as predictors students’ academic self-efficacy and reward/punishment sensitivity; a second model in which the predictors were students’ academic self-efficacy and positive/negative emotions. In both the models we considered inclusive teaching practices as mediator, students’ quality of friendships, internalizing and externalizing problems as outcomes, and students’ gender, age, social desirability and parents’ education as covariates. Results suggested that academic self-efficacy significantly and positively affects inclusive teaching which in turn positively affects quality of friendship, and negatively affects internalizing and externalizing problems; furthermore, we found that inclusive teaching mediates the positive association between punishment sensitivity and internalizing problems. In addition, we also found positive significant associations between negative emotions and high internalizing and externalizing problems. Results on this study are useful in terms of practical implications to promote high school students’ adjustment.