Children’s relationships with homeroom teachers as a protective factor in times of terror

Abstract

The contribution of students’ relationships with their homeroom teachers to their ability to cope with terror and specifically to posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth was studied. Participants consisted of 1101 Israeli high school students who lived under constant terror attacks. Positive relationships with homeroom teachers were found to be linked to higher posttraumatic growth though not to lower posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, girls were found to have higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth than boys, and both posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic stress disorder were found to be positively correlated with exposure to terror. The contribution of student–homeroom teacher relationships to students’ well-being when living under terror is discussed.