The Reciprocal Relations Between Teachers’ Perceptions of Children's Behavior Problems and Teacher–Child Relationships in the First Preschool Year

ABSTRACT

To examine the reciprocal relations between teacher–child relationships and children's behavior problems, the authors analyzed cross-lagged longitudinal data on teacher–child relationships and children's internalizing and externalizing problems using a structural equation modeling approach. The homeroom teachers of 105 first-year preschoolers aged 2–3 years filled in the Student–Teacher Relationship Scale and the Child Behavior Checklist/2–3, first at 3 months after the children's preschool entrance and then at the end of the first preschool year. Results showed significant cross-wave reciprocal relations between externalizing problems and teacher–child conflict and significant cross-wave relation from early internalizing problems to later teacher–child conflict. However, the cross-wave associations between internalizing and externalizing problems and teacher–child closeness were not significant.

Keywords:

• externalizing problem
• internalizing problem
• reciprocal relationship
• teacher–child closeness
• teacher-child conflict

AUTHOR NOTES

Xiao Zhang is an assistant professor in the School of Psychology at Beijing Normal University and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. His research interests focus on children's social, emotional, and academic development. Jin Sun is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Education at the University of Hong Kong. Her primary research interests concern the quality of early childcare and education as well as young children's social and academic development.