"Conclusions: The stability of students’ emotional adaptation profiles suggests that students develop characteristic emotional adaptations to classroom learning demands. Further, the modest strength of these relationships supports the conclusion that students’ emotional adaptations are malleable and open to intervention.
A sense of personal competence is saturated with an awareness of self and other, time and place, and feeling and “fronting up”; each such sense seems central to, yet not considered a determinant of, academic achievement. “Emotional adaptation” is what we call this constellation of self-awareness and relationships, situations and tasks, challenges and affirmations, emotions and coping strategies. We study students’ emotional adaptation in late elementary through middle school for three reasons. First, a primary task for students during this period is to master the demands of schooling in ways that positively influence their confidence in the learners they are and wish to become (Erikson, 1968). The social nature of classrooms presents a second task: to successfully navigate and negotiate relationships with others that can mutually support a sense of shared purpose, place, and valued participation. Third, students in Grades 4–6 have logged a considerable amount of classroom “seat time.” Their real-time information coincides with an increased capacity for self-awareness and reflection. Self-conscious emotions (e.g., guilt, pride, shame) are the by-products of experience coupled with self-awareness and reflection. Self-conscious emotions and how students cope with them contribute to how they learn competence, form relationships, and experience classrooms. We view these emotions as central to emotional adaptation and the development of productive learning, healthy relationships, and student well-being."
