Teacher–Child Relationships, Classroom Emotional Climate, and Elementary Students' Social-Emotional and Academic Development

• In Event: 73.060 - Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 73.060-3 - Correlates of Social and Emotional Learning Among Students and Teachers

Abstract

Children experience school through interactions with teachers and peers. This MA thesis project examines the separate and joint associations of individual teacher-child relationship quality and classroom emotional climate with students’ academic, internalizing, and externalizing outcomes in an upper elementary school sample. Preliminary results showed that depression and academic scores were predicted only by student report of relationship quality, whereas aggression was predicted by both student report and teacher-reported conflict. These results provide evidence for the continued importance of teacher-child relationship quality in upper elementary school and point to the value of incorporating student perceptions in future studies. Additional analyses will examine whether associations between relationship quality and student outcomes vary by levels of emotional climate, as assessed through classroom observations.

Authors

• Christina Rucinski, Fordham University

• Joshua L. Brown, Fordham University

• Jason Downer, University of Virginia

• Hannah Wertz

• Benjamin Gologor

• Megan Stuhlman, University of Virginia

• Bridget Kathleen Hamre, University of Virginia