Citation

O'Connor EE, Dearing E, Collins BA. Am. Educ. Res. J. 2011; 48(1): 120-162.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, American Educational Research Association, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.3102/0002831210365008

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The present study examined associations between the quality of teacher-child relationships and behavior problems among elementary school students using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a study of 1,364 children from birth through adolescence. There were two main findings. First, high-quality teacher-child relationships predicted low levels of externalizing behaviors. Second, high-quality relationships acted as protective factors, helping to prevent children with high levels of internalizing behaviors in early childhood from developing trajectories of long-term internalizing behavior problems. Teacher-child relationships may be proximal phenomena that can be targeted in interventions to help prevent behavior problems in middle childhood.