ERIC Number: EJ1432964
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-2752
EISSN: EISSN-1741-2692
Investigating the Interplay of Student-Teacher Relationships, General Anxiety, and School Adjustment among Italian Primary School Children
Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties, v29 n1-2 p55-69 2024
School adjustment is an important factor in children's, and research attributes an important role to the quality of the teacher-student relationship in predicting more favourable school adjustment. The purpose of this study is to expand our knowledge of the relationship between teacher-student relationship quality and school adjustment (academic achievement, peer social preference, and problem behaviour) by examining the possible mediating role of general anxiety. We recruited a sample of 1135 Italian primary school students (51.6% girls, aged 6 [approximately 10 years, M = 7.7; SD = 0.99) and their teachers who completed an anonymous questionnaire. Results showed that a close teacher-student relationship was significantly and negatively associated with problem behaviours and positively associated with peer social status and academic achievement. Conversely, our data showed that a high-conflict teacher-student relationship was significantly and positively associated with problematic behaviours and negatively associated with peer academic achievement and social status. Our data also suggested a mediating role of general anxiety in explaining the association between a conflictual relationship with the teacher and measures of academic achievement. In this sense, a high-conflict relationship tends to be associated with high levels of general anxiety, which in turn is associated with more in problematic behaviour and worse peer social status and academic achievement.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Elementary School Students, Teacher Student Relationship, Anxiety, Student Adjustment, Relationship, Academic Achievement, Behavior Problems, Social Status, Peer Relationship, Conflict, Elementary School Teachers, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Children, Child Behavior
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Grade 1; Primary Education; Grade 2; Grade 3
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Student Teacher Relationship Scale; Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A