Teacher-Child Relationships and Children’ Social-Emotional Skills: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: The Importance of Adult-Child Relationships (Table 38)

Abstract

Past studies of the relation between teacher-child relationships (TCRs) and children’ social-emotional skills (SESs) yielded mixed results, so this study determined the link between TCRs and SESs, along with their moderators. This meta-analysis of 68 independent effect sizes in 21 empirical studies of 73,372 children showed strong links between TCRs and SESs. There is a significant positive correlation between the positive TCRs and children's SESs, and a significant negative correlation between negative TCRs and children's SESs. Moreover, students’ culture, age, SESs reporter and SESs type moderated these effects. These results suggest the value of improving teacher-child relationships in policies and practices.

Authors

• Ruiqi Dong, East China Normal University

• Chunhong Han

• Wenjing Dai, East China Normal University