Graduate Program

School Psychology

Degree Name

Specialist in School Psychology

Semester of Degree Completion

2008

Thesis Director

Christine McCormick

Thesis Committee Member

Assege HaileMariam

Thesis Committee Member

Linda Leal

Thesis Committee Member

Ronan Bernas

Abstract

The quality of the teacher-child relationship has been described as having implications for the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children, in addition to future school-related outcomes, such as school adjustment and performance (Birch & Ladd, 1998; Hamre & Pianta, 2001). Previous research has focused on children in preschool or kindergarten. The purpose of the present study was to provide information about the teacher-child relationship in middle childhood by examining factors attributed to influencing the relationship. Teachers' perceptions of their relationship with students, measured by the Student Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS), was compared to factors such as sex of the child and the student's perceptions of self-worth, as measured by Global Self-Worth (GSW) on the Harter Self-Perception Profile. Results indicated that scores on the STRS total scores were significantly higher for girls (M=73.25, SD=25.45) than for boys (M=50.38, SD=31.50), t(43) = -2.69,p = .01. Although other results were not significant, this study supports previous research about teacher's perceptions of boy and girl students.

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