Child, teacher and preschool characteristics and child-teacher relationships in Greek preschools

Abstract

Three dimensions of child–teacher relationships (derived from the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale) closeness, conflict and dependency have been conceptualized and investigated. In individualistic cultures a close relationship has been associated with children's academic performance and behavioural adjustment, conflictual relationships have been associated with maladjustment and externalising behaviours, and the dependency dimension has been negatively associated with closeness. We expand previous studies by first investigating the factor structure of the STRs amongst 2,130 preschool children and their 267 teachers in a collectivistic culture, Greece. Second, we investigated effects of child (gender, age, country of origin and special educational needs), teacher (teacher gender, age and affective well-being), and preschool characteristics (school-type, number of children, observed quality using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), on STRS.Using exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) adjusting for differences between preschools we replicated the three-factor solution of the STRS. Consistent with previous studies in collectivistic cultures, closeness and dependency were positively (not negatively) associated. Children's gender and teachers’ affective well-being were found to be consistently associated with all three dimensions of the STRS. In conclusion, the STRS can capture the relationship accurately in a Greek early years setting, and the analysis has demonstrated that the three STRS dimensions are associated with different child and teacher characteristics.