Student-teacher relationship representation and school adjustment in primary school

Titolo Rivista RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA
Autori/Curatori Anna Di Norcia, Eleonora Cannoni, Anna Silvia Bombi
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2022/1
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 12 P. 1-12 Dimensione file 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/rip2022oa13311
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Vedi l'articolo Scarica l'articolo open access

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche.

The present study investigates student-teacher and student-peer relationships, as well as school adjustment. A novelty element is the use of drawing of oneself with a teacher to predict some aspects of children’s adjustment in primary school. Our aim was to evaluate what aspects of student-teacher relationship as perceived by children were more predictive of relational wellbeing in class and school adjustment. In sum, our results confirm that, as predicted by the attachment theory (Hamre & Pianta, 2001), a relationship perceived as close by the teacher goes hand in hand with school adjustment and relational wellbeing in school. Autonomy, too, play a positive role. In terms of predictive power, gaining autonomy from teachers seems to predict students wellbeing even more than closeness, at least as it appears from students pictorial representation. 

The present study investigates student-teacher and student-peer relationships, as well as school adjustment. A novelty element is the use of drawing of oneself with a teacher to predict some aspects of children’s adjustment in primary school. Our aim was to evaluate what aspects of student-teacher relationship as perceived by children were more predictive of relational wellbeing in class and school adjustment. In sum, our results confirm that, as predicted by the attachment theory (Hamre & Pianta, 2001), a relationship perceived as close by the teacher goes hand in hand with school adjustment and relational wellbeing in school. Autonomy, too, play a positive role. In terms of predictive power, gaining autonomy from teachers seems to predict students wellbeing even more than closeness, at least as it appears from students pictorial representation. 

Parole chiave:; student-teacher relationship; children drawing; primary school; school adjustment

  1. Bombi, A. S., Pinto, G., & Cannoni, E. (2007). Pictorial assessment of interpersonal relationships (PAIR) (Vol. 7). Firenze University Press.
  2. Bombi, A.S., Cannoni, E., Gallì, F. & Di Norcia, A. (2020). The relationship between teachers and students: Children’s pictorial representation and teachers evaluation. Current Psychology,1-9. DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-00702-7
  3. Bombi, A.S., Gallì, F. & Di Norcia, A. (2014). “Mio figlio e la scuola”: uno strumento di valutazione delle opinion dei genitori. Psicologia dell’educazione, 8(2), 159-172.
  4. Boulton, M. J., Don, J., & Boulton, L. (2011). Predicting childrenʼs liking of school from their peer relationships. Social Psychology of Education, 14(4), 489-501. DOI: 10.1007/s11218-011-9156-0
  5. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment V. New York, NY: Basic Books.
  6. Buhs, E. S., Ladd, G. W., & Herald, S. L. (2006). Peer exclusion and victimization: Processes that mediate the relation between peer group rejection and childrenʼs classroom engagement and achievement?. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 1-13. DOI: 10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.1
  7. Cannoni, E.& Bombi, A.S. (2016). Friendship and romantic relationships during early and middle childhood. SAGE Open. DOI: 10.1177/2158244016659904
  8. Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1993). Early emotional instability, prosocial behaviour, and aggression: Some methodological aspects. European Journal of personality, 7(1), 19-36.
  9. Demirtaş-Zorbaz, S., & Ergene, T. (2019). School adjustment of first-grade primary school students: Effects of family involvement, externalizing behavior, teacher and peer relations. Children and youth services review, 101, 307-316. DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12094
  10. Golomb, C. (2004). The child’s creation of a pictorial world. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  11. Guidotti, L., Musetti, A., Barbieri, G.L., Ballocchi, I., Corsano, P. (2020). Conflicting and harmonious sibling relationships of children and adolescent siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder. Child Care Health and Development, 1-11. DOI: 10.1111/cch.12823
  12. Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2001). Early teacher-child relationships and the trajectory of children’s school outcomes through eighth grade. Child Development, 72, 625-638. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624
  13. Harrison, L.J., Clarke, L.A., & Ungerer, J.A. (2007). Children’s drawings provide a new perspective on teacher-child relationship quality and school adjustment. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 22, 55-71.
  14. Hughes, J. N., Wu, J. Y., Kwok, O. M., Villarreal, V., & Johnson, A. Y. (2012). Indirect effects of child reports of teacher-student relationship on achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 350. DOI: 10.1037/a0026339
  15. Hughes, J.N., Im, M.H., Wehrly, S.E. (2014). Effect of peer nominations of teacher-student support at individual and classroom levels on social and academic outcomes. Journal of School Psychology, 52, 309-322. DOI: 10.1016/j.-jsp.2013.12.004
  16. Hymel, S. (1986). Interpretations of peer behavior: Affective bias in childhood and adolescence. Child Development, 431-445. DOI: 10.2307/1130599
  17. Koca, F. (2016). Motivation to Learn and Teacher-Student Relationship. Journal of International Education and Leadership, 6(2).
  18. Koomen, H. M. Y., & Jellesma, F. C. (2015). Can closeness, conflict, and dependency be used to characterize students’ perceptions of the affective relationship with their teacher? Testing a new child measure in middle childhood. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 479-497. DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12094
  19. Ladd, G. W. (1990). Having friends, keeping friends, making friends, and being liked by peers in the classroom: Predictors of childrenʼs early school adjustment? Child Development, 61(4), 1081-1100. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02843.x
  20. Laghi, F., Baiocco, R., Cannoni, E., Di Norcia, A., Baumgartner, E., & Bombi, A. S. (2013). Friendship in children with internalizing and externalizing problems: A preliminary investigation with the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships. Children and youth services review, 35(7), 1095-1100. DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.05.007
  21. Milbrath, C. & Trautner H. M. (Eds.) (2008). Children’s understanding and production of pictures, drawings & art. Gottingen: Hogrefe.
  22. Molinari L. (2009) Relazione insegnante-alunno e adattamento scolastico nella scuola primaria: effetti del genere e dell’età. Psicologia dell’educazione, 3(3), 355-368.
  23. Molinari, L., & Melotti, G. (2010). La relazione fra insegnanti e alunni nella scuola primaria: un contributo alla validazione italiana della Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS). Rassegna di Psicologia, 27(2), 9-34.
  24. Pezzica, S., Vezzani, C., & Pinto, G. (2018). Metacognitive knowledge of attention in children with and without ADHD symptoms. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 83, 142-152. DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2018.08.005
  25. Pianta, R. C. (1999). Assessing child-teacher relationships. In R. C. Pianta (Ed.), Enhancing relationships between children and teachers (pp. 85-104). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. DOI: 10.1037/10314-005
  26. Roorda, D. L., Jak, S., Zee, M., Oort, F. J., & Koomen, H. M. Y. (2017). Affective teacher-student relationships and students’ engagement and achievement: A meta-analytic update and test of the mediating role of engagement. School Psychology Review, 46, 239-261. DOI: 10.17105/SPR-2017-0035.V46-3
  27. Verschueren, K., & Koomen, H. M. (2012). Teacher-child relationships from an attachment perspective. Attachment & Human Development, 14, 205-211. DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2012.672260
  28. Wentzel, K. R. (1999). Social influences on school adjustment: Commentary. Educational Psychologist, 34(1), 59-69.
  29. Zee, M., Rudasill, K. M., & Bosman, R. J. (2020). A Cross-Lagged Study of Students’ Motivation, Academic Achievement, and Relationships With Teachers From Kindergarten to 6th Grade. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1037/edu0000574

  • Bir Ölçek Geliştirme Çalışması: İlkokul Öğrencilerinin Okula Uyumlarının İncelenmesi Faruk Kalkan, Erdal Küçüker, Betül Alatlı, in Batı Anadolu Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi /2024 pp.1904
    DOI: 10.51460/baebd.1224102
  • The Chinese version of the stigma of loneliness scale in people with chronic diseases: an assessment of psychometric characteristics Zhiguang Fan, Xiaoli Shi, Yi Luo, Hongyan Chen, Hongjuan Wen, in BMC Public Health 1619/2025
    DOI: 10.1186/s12889-025-22743-y
  • The student’s drawing of teacher’s pictorial Value as a predictor of the student–teacher relationship and school adjustment Anna Di Norcia, Anna Silvia Bombi, Giuliana Pinto, Eleonora Cannoni, in Frontiers in Psychology 1006568/2022
    DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1006568

Anna Di Norcia, Eleonora Cannoni, Anna Silvia Bombi, Student-teacher relationship representation and school adjustment in primary school in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA" 1/2022, pp 1-12, DOI: 10.3280/rip2022oa13311