The Consistency of Perceived Teacher–Child Relationships Between Preschool and Kindergarten

Abstract

Children's relationships with their teachers were examined in a three-year longitudinal study beginning in their next-to-last year of preschool and continuing through kindergarten. Three hundred and fifty-seven children had complete data, and 793 children had at least one year of data. Teachers reported greater closeness and more dependency in their relationships with girls than with boys. There were no age changes in teacher perceptions of relationship quality. Path analysis suggested that perceptions of teacher–child relationship quality, particularly conflictual relationship quality, were consistent from preschool to kindergarten. Further path analysis suggested that teacher perception of children's social adjustment in school was consistent in from preschool to kindergarten. Kindergarten teacher–child relationship perceptions were predicted by preschool teacher perceptions of social adjustment in preschool and by preschool teacher–child relationship perceptions after controlling for gender, maternal education, and preschool child-care quality.