Teacher—Student Relationships Among Behaviorally At-Risk African American Youth From Low-Income Backgrounds: Student Perceptions, Teacher Perceptions, and Socioemotional Adjustment Correlates

Abstract

This investigation examines teacher—student relationships among African American youth from low-income backgrounds (N = 193). Students and their teachers completed measures of teacher—student relationship quality and measures pertaining to emotional, behavioral, and school-related adjustment. Results indicated that African American youth who fell above the clinical cut point on the externalizing scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (n = 64) reported lower trust in relationships with teachers than did similarly matched students who did not have clinically significant externalizing symptomology. In addition, teachers rated students in the externalizing subgroup as lower in relational closeness and greater in relational conflict. Multiple regression analyses applied to data obtained from the behavioral risk group indicated that both student and teacher perceptions of teacher—student relationship quality were associated with student- and teacher-rated emotional, behavioral, and school-related adjustment. The strength of these associations varied as a function of data source and the specific relationship dimension investigated. Implications for future research and practice efforts aimed at building positive teacher—student relationships are discussed.

The Multifaceted Challenges in Teacher-Student Relationships: A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ and Principals’ Experiences and Views Regarding the Dropout Rate in Norwegian Upper-Secondary Education

“…Often, these were a type of student who showed little engagement and interest for school subjects, created unrest and noise, and took the focus away from teaching in the classroom. In keeping with past research (Murray & Murray, 2004;Murray & Zvoch, 2011), our findings suggest that it was particularly difficult to achieve closeness and contact with male students, especially in the VQ programs where the dropout rate is documented to be highest . Some teachers expressed a wish to focus on the specific subjects more than spend time on the social processes and relationship establishment.…”

Differences between Adolescent Boys’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of the Student–Teacher Relationship

“…These results are in line with a recent study that found some concordance between teacher and adolescent student perceptions for the positive dimensions of relationships (Murray & Zvoch, 2011). For the remaining 28 students, boys' and teachers' perceptions did not match.…”

“…When they are reported, findings have been inconsistent. In a study with kindergarten children, low correlations were found between student and teacher ratings of support, closeness and conflict (Murray, Murray, & Waas, 2008), whereas in a study with at-risk, urban youth, there were indications of some concordance between teacher and student perceptions for the positive dimensions of relationships (Murray & Zvoch, 2011). The diversity of findings suggest that what is important for student-teacher relationships may depend on whether the perspective of the students or the teachers is considered.…”

Change in parenting, change in student–teacher relationships, and oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR): Testing a gene-×-environment (G×E) hypothesis in two samples.

“…Not surprisingly, social learning-related research indicates that negative parenting (e.g., criticizing, making negative statements, and/or rejecting) is associated with child behavioral problems (Webster-Stratton & Hammond, 1999), whereas positive parenting (e.g., responsiveness, praise) promotes social skills and reduces behavioral problems (Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Hammond, 2001). Notably, there is also evidence that children with such behavioral problems develop poorer relationships with their teachers (Henricsson & Rydell, 2004;Murray & Zvoch, 2011).…”