Teachers’ compassionate love for students: a possible determinant of teacher-student relationships with adolescents and a mediator between teachers’ perceived support from coworkers and teacher-student relationships

ABSTRACT

Positive effects of teacher-student relationships (TSR) have been widely documented. However, fewer studies have explored the determinants of TSR. The present study examined the effect of a possible determinant of TSR whose role has not yet been investigated – teachers’ compassionate love. It also examined the mediating role of teachers’ compassionate love in the link between teachers’ perceived social support and TSR. A sample of teachers (N = 142) answered an online questionnaire including the compassionate love scale. Teachers’ compassionate love predicted the closeness dimension of TSR, even after controlling for attachment style, subjective well-being, and teachers’ gender. Teachers’ perceived social support from co-workers predicted teachers’ compassionate love and the closeness dimension of TSR. The connection between teachers’ perceived social support from co-workers and the closeness dimension of TSR appeared fully mediated by both dimensions of teachers’ compassionate love. Hence, teachers’ compassionate love is a crucial factor in the way students experience school.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• caregiving
• compassionate love
• teacher-student relationship
• perceived social support at work

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Epsylon research group (University of Montpellier) for allowing us to use the Epsyline website.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval and informed consent

We obtained approval for the study from the Epsylon research group’s ethics committee (University of Montpellier) before posting the questionnaire online. All participants provided voluntary and informed consent before answering the questionnaire.

Additional information

Funding

This study was not supported by any funding.

Notes on contributors

Mael Virat

Mael Virat is a researcher at the National School for the Judicial Protection of Youth (ENPJJ) in France. He is a member the PSITEC laboratory (EA 4072), University of Lille. His research interests in social psychology focus on relationships in different educational contexts.