Teacher-child Relationships Research Articles

Preschool children's negative affect and social skills in China: The moderating effect of the teacher-child relationship.

Negative affect is an important temperament in children, influencing their social skills. However, the evidence for this association in preschool children is limited. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms that explain the relationship between preschool children’s negative affect and social skills remain less understood. Thus, the primary goal of this study was to examine the moderating role of the teacher–child relationship in the associations between negative affect and social skills of Chinese preschoolers. A sample of 198 preschool children (Mage = 58.64 ± 3.83 months, 53% boys), recruited from 13 classes in two public kindergartens in Shanghai, China, participated in this 1-year longitudinal study. The mothers reported children’s negative affect, while the teachers reported children’s social skills and the teacher–child relationship. Results of a series of moderating effect analyses showed that (1) T1 negative affect could significantly negatively predict T2 social skills (cooperation, self-control, and assertion), and (2) the associations between negative affect and social skills were moderated by the teacher–child relationship (including teacher–child closeness and conflict). Specifically, a high level of teacher–child closeness buffered the prediction of negative affect on social skills, while a high level of teacher–child conflict aggravated the said prediction. The findings highlight the importance of the teacher–child relationship in the development of children’s social skills during preschool age when they have a high level of negative affect. This has important implications for the development of interventions to improve teacher–child relationships and children’s social skills.

Disrupting the Link between Corporal Punishment Exposure and Adolescent Aggression: The Role of Teacher-Child Relationships

Previous research has identified harsh parenting practices, such as corporal punishment, as a predictor of adolescent behaviour problems such as increased aggression. However, not all children who experience childhood corporal punishment develop increased aggression, making the illumination of factors moderating this link an important question for informing prevention. In the current study, an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model was used to examine teacher-child relationships as both a direct and interactive protective factor (via weakening the effects of corporal punishment exposure) in adolescent aggression. Data was used from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso). Self-reported data was collected at three time points: age 11 (n = 1144, 49% female) age 13 (n = 1366, 49% female) and age 15 (n = 1447, 48% female). Results suggested having a positive teacher-child relationship was a direct protective factor against concurrent aggression. However, there was not consistent evidence for a moderating effect of teacher-child relationships. Implications of these findings are discussed.

키워드 네트워크 분석을 활용한 유아 사회적 유능감 국내 연구 동향 분석

Objectives TThe purpose of this study is to identify research trends related to social competence of early childhood through keyword network analysis. Methods For a total of 440 social competence of early childhood-related papers published in Korea from 2000 to 2021, the frequency was calculated using the Excel 2016 program, and network centrality analysis was performed using the UCINET 6 program. In addition, frequency analysis was conducted based on the research method and research topic of the paper to be studied. Results First, the publication of social competence-related studies from 2000 to 2010 was low at the beginning, but the number increased explosively from 2011. Second, In both the first and second periods, Quantitative research was conducted the most in research related to social competence of young children, and research on the subject of exploring the relationship between related variables was conducted the most. Third, in the keyword frequency analysis, 2011 was divided into the first half and the second half. In the first half, young children’s temperament, mothers' parenting attitude, young children’s emotional intelligence, and in the second half, young children’s emotional intelligence, young children’s emotion regulation ability, young children’s self-regulation were the most frequent. Third, as a result of analyzing the centrality of the keyword network by dividing it into the first half and the second half based on 2011, the centrality of the connection was in the order of young children’s temperament, mothers' parenting attitude, young children’s emotional intelligence in the first half, mothers' parenting attitude, young children’s self-esteem, young children’s emotional intelligence in the second half. appear. Proximity centrality showed that in the first half of the year, young children’s temperament, mothers' parenting attitude, young children’s emotional intelligence, and in the latter period, young children’s self-esteem, teacher-child relationship, young children’s emotional intelligence were in that order. In the analysis of mediation centrality, young children’s temperament, young children’s emotional intelligence, mothers' parenting attitude in the first half were found in the order of young children’s self-esteem, teacher-child relationship, young children’s emotional intelligence in the latter period. In the prestige centrality analysis, young children’s temperament, mothers' parenting attitude, young children’s problem behavior problem behavior, mother's depression, and marital conflict were found in the first half of the year, followed by mothers' parenting attitude, young children’s self-regulation, and young children’s self-esteem in the later stages. Conclusions These results are significant in that they reviewed research trends related to the subject at a time when child abuse-related research is rapidly increasing, drew implications for future research directions.

보육교사의 성인애착불안이 놀이성을 매개로 교사-유아 관계 효능감에 미치는 영향

This study explored the relationship between adult attachment anxiety and playfulness on teacher self-efficacy for teacher-child relationships of childcare teachers through Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)BR Participants were 204 teachers working at childcare centers. Data were collected through questionnaire on teacher’s adult attachment anxiety, playfulness, and teacher self-efficacy. Teacher-child relationships were analyzed with %, mean and Pearson’s correlation, , TLI, NFI, CFI, RMSEA, and Bootstrapping using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20.0.BR Results were as follows. First, teachers’ adult attachment anxiety had no influence on teacher self-efficacy for teacher-child relationships. Second, teachers’ playfulness had an influence on teacher self-efficacy for teacher-child relationships. Third, teachers’ adult attachment anxiety had an influence on teachers’ playfulness. Fourth, the influence of teachers’ adult attachment anxiety on teacher self-efficacy for teacher-child relationships was completely mediated by playfulness. Teachers’ adult attachment anxiety had an indirect effect on teacher self-efficacy for teacher-child relationships through playfulness.

The Teachers’ Role in Behavioral Problems of Pupils With EBD in Special Education: Teacher–Child Relationships Versus Structure

This longitudinal study examined bidirectional associations between special education pupils’ teacher–child relationship characteristics (quality, satisfaction, and conflict), classroom structure, and behavioral problems (externalizing and attention-hyperactivity). A secondary goal was to investigate the extent to which severity of behavioral problems moderated the prospective associations. Participants were 586 pupils (86% boys) in Grades 4 to 6 ( Mage time 1 = 10.82 years, SD = 0.86) from 13 special education schools in the Netherlands and their teachers. Findings indicated that primarily teacher–child conflict was related to increased externalizing problems. More classroom structure was related to decreased attention-hyperactivity problems, but higher teacher–child relationship quality was linked to increases in attention-hyperactivity problems. Moreover, both types of problems were related to increases in conflict. Severity of behavior problems did not moderate these associations. Although findings were not consistent in both school years, they suggested that particularly reducing conflict and instilling more classroom structure were the most effective strategies in reducing behavioral problems. Furthermore, disrupting negative transactional associations between conflict and externalizing behavior is important to reduce externalizing behavior.

Early Childhood Education Teacher Well-Being: Performativity as a Means of Coping.

Detrimental circumstances (e.g., poverty, homelessness) may affect parents, parenting, and children. These circumstances may lead to children being labeled “at risk” for school failure. To ameliorate this risk, more school and school earlier (e.g., Head Start) is offered. To improve child outcomes, Head Start teachers are expected to bolster children?s academic readiness in a manner that is beneficially warm, circulating warmth in their classrooms to sustain positive teacher-child relationships and the positive climate of the classroom. The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008) is one tool by which these domains of warmth are assessed. There are, however, significant personal and professional stressors with which Head Start teachers contend which the CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) does not consider in its scoring methods. Uplifting the voices of six Head Start teachers, the present study implemented individual and focus group interviews during the summer and fall months of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, asking (a) What were the stories, histories, and lived experiences of these Head Start teachers with regard to stress and warmth in a time of crisis? and (b) How did these teachers understand and approach the CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) and its measures of their warmth? Data demonstrated Head Start teachers engaged in a type of performativity to 1) mask their stress, potentially worsening their levels of stress in order to maintain warmth for their students’ sake, and 2) outwit the prescribed CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) observations. Implications and insights are discussed.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-022-01387-2.

Building inclusive preschool classrooms: How desirable and feasible is a set of strategies that facilitate teacher-child relationships?

Positive teacher-child relationships promote children’s engagement, as children feel more secure to explore and participate in free or oriented activities. For children with disabilities, a context wherein they can receive the support to maintain a positive engagement in different activities is even more relevant. A scarcity of research exists on how to promote ECEC quality, namely, how to facilitate teacher-child interactions in inclusive environments. This study aims to evaluate preschool teachers’ opinions about thedesirabilityandfeasibilityof a set of empirically validated strategies to improve teacher-child interactions in ECEC classrooms, for the group and children with disabilities. The participants were 89 Portuguese preschool teachers. Based on a non-systematic literature review, a questionnaire composed of 22 strategies to facilitate teacher-child interactions (in 4 dimensions: emotionally responsive interactions, classroom management, attend to children’s perspectives, and scaffolding learning) was developed. Along with the questionnaire, a set of socio-demographic variables was also collected. ECEC teachers scored significantly higher in thedesirabilitysubscale compared with thefeasibilitysubscale in all dimensions and at both thechildand thegrouplevel. This gap between teachers’ perceiveddesirabilityandfeasibilityprovides important insights regarding the dimensions which are important to reinforce in ECEC teachers’ education and professional development. The mean difference between thedesirabilityandfeasibilitysubscales registered a higher effect size at thechild’s level than at thegroup’slevel, confirming that the inclusion of children with disabilities in preschool settings remains a challenge. Moreover, the effect size was small to moderate in theEmotionally Responsive Interactionsdimension for bothchildandgrouplevels. These results are aligned with previous studies stating that among different self-identified dimensions for improvement, emotional support is the less evoked by ECEC teachers. Across all dimensions, the main reason teachers give for difficulty infeasibility, both at thegroupandchild’slevel, is lack ofknowledge. Overall, understanding the reasons teachers attribute to the difference between the strategies’desirabilityandfeasibilityinforms the assessment of teacher education needs and might be operationalized as a new observation instrument.

Examining the relationships between teachers’ affective states, self-efficacy, and teacher-child relationships in kindergartens: An integration of social cognitive theory and positive psychology

This study examines the effects of kindergarten teachers’ self-efficacy on their perceived teacher-child relationships, and explores the associations between self-efficacy and two types of positive affective states (i.e., flow experience and psychological well-being) as the antecedents of efficacy beliefs. A sample of 796 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong participated in this study. The results showed that teachers’ flow experience and psychological well-being were significantly associated with their perceived positive teacher-child relationships, and teacher self-efficacy significantly mediated the effects of teachers’ positive affective states on their perceived teacher-child relationships. The results highlight the significance of integrating social cognitive theory and positive psychology into the understanding of the relationships between teachers’ positive affective states, self-efficacy, and teacher-child relationships in early childhood education settings. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Early Teacher-Child Relationships Promote Self-Regulation Development in Prekindergarten.

Children’s experiences during the prekindergarten period are critical for shaping their emerging self-regulation skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of teacher–child relationship quality to children’s performance on a self-regulation task at the end of prekindergarten. Teachers rated the conflict, closeness, and dependency in their relationships with 104 children in the fall of prekindergarten, and children’s self-regulation was independently measured with a visual attention task in the spring of prekindergarten. In addition, teachers and parents rated children’s temperamental self-regulation (i.e., effortful control). Results indicate that greater teacher–child dependency predicted children’s longer time on the visual attention task, and greater teacher–child closeness predicted children’s lower accuracy on the visual attention task. In addition, children who were rated as more self-regulated by parents were more accurate on the visual attention task. The implications of the results are discussed.

A new look at teacher interactional quality: Profiles of individual teacher–child relationship and classroom teaching quality among Head Start students

ABSTRACT Research Findings: and Practice Preschool teachers’ relationships with children are a critical component of classroom quality. We draw from a sample of N = 2,114 children attending Head Start to examine child-centered profiles of experiences across two dimensions of classroom interaction quality that are often considered separately: individual teacher–child closeness and conflict, and classroom-level instructional and emotional support. Findings reveal considerable heterogeneity in Head Start children’s experiences, as the profiles differed on individual conflict, and classroom emotional and instructional support. The largest profile was characterized by a positive emotional climate and low instructional support. Higher teacher distress was associated with the highest-quality and the highest conflict profiles. The results also revealed early evidence for gender and race and ethnicity-based disadvantages in Head Start classroom experiences. Practice or Policy: Measures of ECE quality must consider teacher-child relationships. Teacher well-being is tied to classroom and individual interactions; findings suggest teachers and child may benefit from strategies that support teachers’ well-being.

Three Decades of Research on Individual Teacher-Child Relationships: A Chronological Review of Prominent Attachment-Based Themes

Attachment theory has played a prominent role in the study of affective relationships between teachers and individual children in school settings. This review synthesizes three decades of attachment-based research on teacher-child relationships roughly covering the period between 1992 and 2022. Five key themes were discussed: (1) conceptualization and assessment, (2) secure base and autonomous exploration, (3) safe haven and self-regulation, (4) attachment history and relationship (dis)continuity, and (5) teacher sensitivity and mentalization. Following a narrative review approach, a selection of pivotal research studies was made and chronologically presented to illustrate research developments per theme. The results indicated that the conceptualization and assessment of teacher-child relationships holds largely, but not completely, across different developmental phases, cultural contexts, measurement methods, and informants. In addition, research confirmed the role of the secure base and safe haven functions of teacher-child relationships in promoting children’s emotional security at school. Furthermore, progression has been made through the development of multiple measurement methods for both teachers and children, by expanding research from early childhood education up to secondary education, and by more recent cross-cultural studies. However, there is still limited insight in mechanisms that explain (dis)continuity in relationships over time, and a striking lack of research on dyadic teacher sensitivity and mentalization as antecedents of teacher-child relationships. Research directions for the following decade(s) of research are discussed per theme.

Association between children’s temperament and learning behaviors: contribution of relationships with parents and teachers

The present study is an investigation of the contributions of child temperament (persistence and reactivity), parent-child (closeness and conflict), and teacher-child relationship (closeness and conflict), to pre-school children's learning behaviours with a focus on the moderating role of these relationships between child temperament and learning behaviours. Participants were 140 children (59 girls) aged 39 to 77 months (M = 62.57, SD = 8.53). Child temperament and parent-child relationships were reported by parents. Teacher-child relationships and learning behaviours were reported by teachers. Results from regression analyses accounting for the nesting structure of the data showed that reactivity, parent-child conflict, and teacher-child conflict were negatively, and persistence and teacher-child closeness were positively related to children’s learning behaviours. In addition, when the parent-child conflict was at average or high levels, children with higher reactivity displayed lower levels of learning behaviours. The findings highlight that both temperament and relationships with parents and teachers are important for children’s learning behaviours.

Mentalization and attachment in educational relationships at primary school

Mentalization is a key social ability that develops from infancy to adulthood, starting from early familiar attachment relationships. Children experience several contexts, in particular, educational ones such as school, where they build new attachment relationships with teachers. Although the amount of research on the links between mentalization and attachment has been increasing in recent years, there is still little evidence on the teacher-child relationship from a mentalization perspective. Moreover, only few studies focus on middle childhood, a crucial age for building positive school relationships. This study aims to investigate the possible effects of some measures of teachers' mentalization, namely, mind-mindedness and mentalised affectivity, and of pupils' representation of the educational attachment relationship on the mentalization abilities of children aged 8 to 10. The results show that a teacher's tendency to describe a pupil through physical comments and not mental comments, and her/his ability to use autobiographical memory to interpret the present emotional experience, impact children's mentalization abilities. This highlights the important role of the teacher in the construction of a class climate that supports pupils' mentalization.

Fostering Early Motivation: The Influence of Teacher-Child Relationships and Interactions on Motivation in the Kindergarten Classroom

ABSTRACT Research Findings: The present study examines the unique and joint effects of individual teacher-child relationships and overall quality of teacher-child interactions on the motivation of 2,745 kindergarten children (51% girls; ages 5–6) from an ethnically and linguistically diverse county. Teachers reported the closeness and conflict in their individual relationships with each child. The quality of teacher-child interactions was measured via classroom observations using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Motivation was measured using children’s self-reports of their school enjoyment, feelings toward the teacher, self-concept, and growth mindset. Multilevel models showed that teacher-child relationships characterized by high closeness were positively associated with children’s motivation, whereas highly conflictual teacher-child relationships were associated with negative motivation outcomes, especially for boys. No significant associations were found between teacher-child interactions and children’s motivation. Practice or Policy: The findings highlight the role of supportive relationships between teachers and children in the early development of motivation, and potential gender differences that may emerge. Professional development and training that help teachers form positive relationships with different children from diverse backgrounds may support teachers in fostering young children’s motivation.

To conform or not to conform: An in-depth analysis of teacher–child interaction and the role of emotions in social adaptation in preschool

Early childhood education (ECE) presupposes a balance between emotionally supportive interaction and pre-academic teaching instruction, and research indicates an increasing pressure on preschool teachers’ communicative competence. This study focuses on the functions of emotions in the teacher–child relationship in a situated context. Such studies are scarce in the research on ECE, which mainly concerns children’s socioemotional learning. Using a micro-sociological approach, characterized by an in-depth analysis of interaction, we explore the ways in which emotions may foster conformity in goaloriented preschool activities. Verbal and nonverbal utterances between a preschool teacher and a child in a video-recorded episode were transcribed and analyzed meticulously. The findings reveal an informal, subtle system of social sanctions within which the emotions of shame and pride have important functions, which leads to social adaptation to goal-oriented expectations. The study also discusses how emotional processes during interaction can be understood in light of the institutional context of current ECE.

Preschool Children's Observed Interactions with Teachers: Implications for Understanding Teacher-Child Relationships.

Theory and research point to the daily interactions between individual children and teachers as formative to teacher-child relationships, yet observed dyadic teacher-child interactions in preschool classrooms have largely been overlooked. This study provides a descriptive examination of the quality of individual children's interactions with their teacher as a basis for understanding one source of information theorized to inform children's and teachers' perceptions of their relationships with each other. Children's dyadic interactions with teachers, including their positive engagement, communication, and conflict, were observed across a large and racially/ethnically diverse sample of 767 preschool children (M = 4.39 years) at three time points in the year. On average, most children displayed low-to-moderate levels of positive engagement (78%), while nearly all children showed rare communication (81%) and conflict (99%) with the teacher. Boys demonstrated lower positive engagement and higher conflict with the teacher than girls. Black children were observed to demonstrate higher positive engagement with the teacher compared to White children. No differences in interaction quality were observed for Black children with a White teacher compared to White child-White teacher or Black child-Black teacher pairs. Results advance our understanding of dyadic teacher-child interactions in preschool classrooms and raise new questions to expand our knowledge of how teacher-child relationships are established, maintained, and modified, to ultimately support teachers in building strong relationships with each and every preschooler.

Exploring the Role of Teacher–Child Relationships in the Longitudinal Associations Between Childhood Shyness and Social Functioning at School: A Prospective Cohort Study

The goal of this study was to explore longitudinally the protective role of relationships with early childhood and education care (ECEC) teachers for shy children’s social functioning at age 5 and 8 years. Participants were N = 7343 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child (MoBa) study, a prospective longitudinal cohort study in Norway. Measures included maternal rating of child shyness at age 18 months, 3 and 5 years, ECEC teacher ratings of teacher–child relationships and maternal ratings of child peer play behaviors at age 5 years, and teacher ratings of child social competence at age 8 years. We conducted latent moderated-mediation analyses within a SEM framework. Among the results, childhood shyness was negatively associated with social functioning. However, significant indirect and moderation effects were also found, with a pattern suggesting that early positive teacher–child relationships have a buffering influence on shy children’s risk for social difficulties.

Quality of Teacher–Child Relationships: An Exploration of its Effect on Children’s Emergent Literacy Skills

Quality of Teacher–Child Relationships: An Exploration of its Effect on Children’s Emergent Literacy Skills

Child–teacher relationship training exclusively in the classroom: Impact on teacher attitudes and behaviors.

Child–teacher relationship training exclusively in the classroom: Impact on teacher attitudes and behaviors.

Exploring the experiences of elementary teachers after completing Child Teacher Relationship Training (CTRT): Implications for teaching in diverse school settings.

Exploring the experiences of elementary teachers after completing Child Teacher Relationship Training (CTRT): Implications for teaching in diverse school settings.