How parent–teacher relationship affects Chinese pupils' school attitudes? The moderation of students' perceptions of academic performance

Abstract

Although the benefits of the close relationship between parent and teacher to child development are widely recognized, it's still unclear how the parent–teacher relationship affects Chinese pupils' school attitudes. The study aimed to investigate this question with a nuanced approach by focusing on the components of the parent–teacher relationship and exploring the moderation of students' perceptions of academic performance. Data were from 1755 fifth graders (M _age = 12.19, 51.3% girls) and their mothers (M _age = 41.38) in a two-wave longitudinal dataset. Parents' reports of parent-initiated contact, teacher-initiated contact, the quality of the parent–teacher relationship, and students' perceptions of school attitudes and academic performance were analysed by multiple regression models. In terms of the main effect, parent–teacher relationship quality was negatively associated with school avoidance. In terms of the moderation effects, parent-initiated contact was negatively associated with students' school liking who had low academic perceptions, and the relationship quality was positively associated with students' school liking who had high academic perceptions. The findings provide insights into promoting pupils' school psychological adjustment from the perspective of home–school collaboration in the Chinese context.