The Gender-Specific Role of Social Relationships for School Well-Being in Primary School: Do Peers and Teachers Matter Differently?

Abstract

Since learning at school is always embedded in a social context, students social relationships are considered key variables for their school well-being. But especially studies at the primary school level that examine gender-specific linkages between students relationships with peers and teachers and components of their school well-being are lacking. Therefore, a longitudinal study with 351 primary school students was conducted. Girls indicated a better relationship with their teacher, a more positive attitude toward school, and predominantly more beneficial achievement emotions than boys. Manifest multi-group path models suggest that students perceived teacher-studentrelationship seems to predict their attitude toward school for both genders positively, while its connections with particular achievement emotions differ between boys and girls. Student-student-relationships in the sense of comfortableness among classmates showed beneficial connections with positive emotions for girls and negative links with unpleasant emotions for boys. The results suggest that linkages between different social relationships and various dimensions of school well-being are gender-specific and should be considered in their broad variety both in research and instructional practice.