Teachers’ attachment moderates links between students’ internalizing and externalizing problems, teacher-student relationships, and students’ school-related attitudes

Abstract

Background: Teacher-student relationships contribute to students’ well-being, school adjustment, and achievements. Only a handful of studies have focused on the contribution of teacher characteristics to teacher-student relationships. Method: Thirty-one 1st–3rd-grade teachers and 212 of their students participated in the study. We assessed teachers’ self-reports of attachment orientations (avoidance, anxiety), perceived student problems (internalizing and externalizing problems, and perceived quality of teacher-student relationships (closeness, conflict) as well as students’ reports of school attitudes (school liking and avoidance). Results: First, students’ internalizing and externalizing problems were significantly linked to teacher-student relationships and students’ school attitudes. Furthermore, regardless of teachers’ attachment, higher externalizing problems were linked to higher teacher-student conflict. Second, regardless of students’ problems, higher teachers’ avoidance was linked to higher teacher-student conflict, to higher students’ school liking and lower students’ school avoidance. Third, teachers high in attachment anxiety coupled with children high in internalization showed better results in terms of teacher-student relationships and children’s school attitudes compared to other combinations of teacher attachment and student problems. Discussion: Teachers’ attachment avoidance is associated with teacher-student relationships and children’s school liking and avoidance among children. Furthermore, compatible teacher-student emotional styles seem to improve teacher-student relationships and students’ school-related attitudes.