Teacher–Student Relationship Quality and Social, Academic, and Behavioral Adjustment Are Associated Within and Between Persons From Kindergarten to Grade 6

Although the significance of teacher–student relationships for children’s development has long been of interest to developmental scientists, few prior studies have used modeling approaches that explicitly document the intraindividual, dynamic processes that link teacher–student relationships with children’s adjustment. The present study used bias-adjusted Student–Teacher Relationship Scale (Pianta, 2001) scores to document the within-person developmental processes that link teacher–student relationship quality with key developmental outcomes (including social competence, academic competence, and externalizing and internalizing symptoms) from kindergarten through Grade 6. Data were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,041; 80.4% White, 12.9% Black, 6.1% Hispanic; 31.5% of mothers had a high school diploma or less). Withinand between-person bivariate associations were estimated using a series of latent curve models with structured residuals. Findings revealed consistent within-year associations with both school and home adjustment. Longitudinal findings suggested that within-person variations in teacher–student relationship quality are associated with subsequent academic functioning and externalizing symptoms. Furthermore, analyses suggested that social competence, academic competence, and externalizing symptoms are associated with subsequent teacher–student relationship quality. Results highlight the dynamic, bidirectional interactions between teacher–student relationships and children’s social, academic, and behavioral trajectories over time. Future studies are needed to explore teacher–student relationships and adjustment at different timescales and to understand the extent to which teacher–student relationships are impactful for different students at various levels of developmental risk.