Podium Presentation - 10 minutes International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Teacher-Student Relationships Antecedents and Outcomes: Initial findings from a Multi-Level Study of Teachers and Their Students (#40)

Eman Naama-Ghanayim 1 , Ofra Prof Mayseless 1 , Shiri Dr Lavy 1 , Roza Prof Leikin 1 , Nurit Dr Paz-Baruch 2 , Michal Prof Zion 2 , Zemira Prof Mevarech 2
  1. Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
  2. Education, Bar-Ilan University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Background and Aims: Teacher-student relationships have been linked with students’ learning, achievement and wellbeing. In the present study, we sought to explore teachers’ job attitudes that contribute to their ability to create and maintain effective, high-quality relationships with their students. Specifically, we focused on teachers’ sense of meaning at work and work engagement – which were previously linked with various aspects of teachers’ performance and functioning. We explored the associations of teachers’ reports of their sense of meaning and engagement at work with the quality of their relationships with students – as reported by the teachers and their students. We further examined initial correlations of these relationships with various aspects of students’ wellbeing and functioning.  

Hypotheses:

H1: Teachers’ sense of meaning and engagement at work will be associated with teacher-student relationships quality (reported by teachers and students)

H2: Students’ relationships with teachers would be associated with students’ school engagement, positive affect, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and resilience.

Method: We surveyed 30 homeroom teachers and 515 students, who completed self-reported measures of the study variables.

Results: Regression analyses showed that teachers’ sense of meaning and engagement at work were associated with their reports of the quality of their relationships with students. Similarly, HLM analysis, in which students’ data was nested within their teachers’ data, indicated that teachers’ sense of meaning and engagement at work were associated with their students’ reports of the quality of their relationships with the teachers. In turn, the quality of these relationships were also associated with students’ school engagement, positive affect, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and resilience.

Conclusions: The findings point to teachers’ sense of meaning and engagement at work as potential contributors to teachers’ ability to create effective relationships with students, and suggest that these factors should receive more attention in educational research and in teacher training and development. 

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  • Keywords: Achievement, Education, Relationships