Teacher-student Relationship, Peer Relationship And Adaptation In Children In Middle And Late Childhood

Teacher-child relationships are main parts of children's social relationships.In the school setting,teachers' support is of great importance to children's academic achievement,psychological adjustment and peer acceptance.Previous research tended to use cross-sectional design to explore the association between teacher-child relationships and children's adjustment problems,and few researches have discovered its possible mechanism.This research uses longitudinal design to search the developmental trajectory of children's teacher-child relationships,and the correlation between teacher-child relationships and children's adjustment problems,with the potential mediation effect of peer acceptance.This research consists of two parts:Study I uses unconditional linear latent variable growth model to measure the teacher-child relationships' developmental trajectories of elementary students and middle school students individually.The study finds that both of elementary students' teacher-child closeness and teacher-child conflict decline over time,while linear model does not fit well for middle school students.Study II uses cascading models to find the associations among children's teacher-child relationships,adjustment problems and peer acceptance.The findings are as follows:(1)Teacher-child conflict and peer acceptance can predict each other negatively,while teacher-child closeness and peer acceptance cannot predict each other.(2)Peer acceptance and loneliness can predict each other negatively,while peer acceptance and academic achievement can predict each other positively.(3)Although teacher-child conflict and loneliness cannot predict each other directly,they have positive effects mutually through peer acceptance indirectly.While teacher-child closeness and loneliness have negative effects mutually,peer acceptance does not play significant mediation role in these effects.(4)Teacher-child conflict and academic achievement can predict each other negatively,and in these effects peer acceptance playsa significant mediation role.While teacher-child closeness and academic achievement cannot predict each other,neither directly nor indirectly through peer acceptance.