Measuring teacher-student relationships among children with emotional and behavioral problems

A rapidly growing body of research indicates that the quality of children's relationships with teachers can affect students’ emotional, behavioral, and school related adjustment. The vast majority of this research has relied on measures that assess teacher—rather than student—perceptions of these relationships. In this study, we administered a student self-report measure of teacher-student relationships (TSR) to 185 children, all of whom had emotional and behavioral problems. Children's special education teachers (N = 76) also completed a validated measure of TSR. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis of child ratings confirmed a model that included three TSR factors: Communication, Trust, and Alienation. Analyses of similarities between student and teacher views of their relationship with one another suggested limited concordance, however, student perceptions of TSR were robust predictors of their emotional, behavioral, and school adjustment even after controlling for teacher perceptions of TSR. These findings provide preliminary support for the importance assessing student perceptions of TSR and initial evidence for the construct validity, reliability and criterion-related validity of a child report measure of teacher-student relationships among students with emotional and behavioral problems.