How Children Feel Matters: Teacher-Student Relationship as an Indirect Role Between Interpersonal Trust and Social Adjustment

The influence mechanism underlying meaning in life on career adaptability among college students: a chain intermediary model

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a huge challenge to the career situation of college students. This study aimed to understand the mechanism underlying meaning in life on career adaptability among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A quantitative method was adopted. In total, 1,182 college students were surveyed using the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, the Adult General Hope Scale, and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale.

Results

There was a significant positive correlation between meaning in life, positive coping styles, hope, and career adaptability. Positive coping styles and hope play a separate mediating role and a chain mediating role.

Discussion

The findings of this study emphasize the importance of meaning in life among college students to improve their career adaptability. Furthermore, positive coping styles and increased levels of hope contribute to the development of career adaptability among college students.

Understanding teacher emotional exhaustion: exploring the role of teaching motivation, perceived autonomy, and teacher-student relationships

Introduction

This research investigates the complex interplay of factors influencing teacher emotional exhaustion within the educational environment. It draws upon a diverse sample of 680 teachers from 15 primary educational institutions in various districts of Shanghai, China.

Methods

The study examines the interrelationships among teacher-student relationships, perceived autonomy, teaching motivation, and emotional exhaustion. It employs validated scales to measure these constructs and utilizes Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for analysis.

Results

The analyses using SEM reveal significant associations among the variables under study. The findings indicate robust correlations between positive teacher-student relationships, perceived autonomy, and higher teaching motivation. Concurrently, these factors exhibit a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion.

Discussion

Mediation analysis further unveils that teaching motivation plays a significant mediating role in the associations between teacher-student relationships, perceived autonomy, and emotional exhaustion. This emphasizes the intricate indirect effects of these constructs.

Conclusion

The study underscores the multifaceted nature of these factors and their collective impact on teacher well-being within educational settings. The implications derived highlight the importance for educational institutions to prioritize interventions fostering positive teacher-student relationships, autonomy-supportive environments, and intrinsic motivation among educators. These interventions aim to alleviate emotional exhaustion and enhance teacher well-being.

Thinking Style Moderates the Impact of the Classroom Environment on Language Creativity

The classroom environment significantly affects the development of creativity. This study examined the impact of the classroom environment on students' creativity and the moderating role of thinking styles in this relationship. For this study, we recruited 451 students from six secondary schools. Data were collected using the Chinese Language Creativity Test, Classroom Environment Inventory, and Thinking Styles Inventory. Hierarchical regression analysis examined the moderating effect of thinking styles on the relationship between the classroom environment and creativity. The results showed that peer relationships in the classroom environment negatively influence students' fluency and originality in creativity. At the same time, teachers' evaluation and teaching methods positively affect the fluency of creativity. Thinking styles moderated the impact of the classroom environment on language creativity. This study identified four different moderating effects: the thinking styles matching the classroom environment can enhance language creativity, whereas the mismatched ones hinder it. However, matching would limit language creativity for individuals with creative thinking styles (e.g., legislative and anarchic thinking styles), while a mismatch can boost creative performance. The findings help educators understand students' creativity with different thinking styles in various classroom environments and provide individualized and effective strategies for optimizing educational environments and enhancing language creativity.

Serotonergic multilocus genetic variation moderates the association between interpersonal relationship and adolescent depressive symptoms

BACKGROUND

Research suggests that genetic variants linked to serotonin functioning moderate the association between environmental stressors and depressive symptoms, but examining gene-environment interactions with single polymorphisms limits power.

METHODS

A multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) approach to measuring serotonergic multilocus genetic variation and examined interactions with interpersonal relationship, insomnia with depressive symptoms as outcomes in an adolescent sample (average age = 14.15 ± 0.63 years since first measurement; range: 13 to 15).

RESULTS

(1) interpersonal relationship predicted adolescent depressive symptoms; (2) insomnia mediated the effect of interpersonal relationships on adolescent depressive symptoms; (3) the THP2 gene rs4570625 polymorphism G allele was a key risk factor for depressive symptom, and the MGPS moderated the effects of teacher-student relationship and insomnia on adolescent depressive symptom. Specifically, as the MGPS increased, the effects of insomnia on adolescent depressive symptom were enhanced; further, when the MGPS score increased, the effect of teacher-student relationship on depression showed a similar phenomenon with an increased slope and enhanced prediction; and (4) the results of sensitivity analysis showed that multilocus genetic interaction with the environment had a better explanatory power and stability for depression than single polymorphism studies.

CONCLUSION

MGPS provides substantial power to examine gene-environmental interactions linked to affective outcomes among adolescents.

The association between working memory, teacher-student relationship, and academic performance in primary school children

Introduction

Early relationships with teachers play an important role in children's development and significantly influence students' cognitive and academic performance. Studies suggest that working memory (WM) is a strong predictor of academic achievement, especially of reading and arithmetic outcomes. The associations between teacher-student relationship (TSR) quality, children's WM skills and their academic performance have been reported in numerous observational studies. However, the potentially bidirectional and temporal nature of the relationships between these constructs is understudied.

Methods

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between primary school children's WM and TSR by applying a cross-lagged design and measuring these constructs at three time points throughout the academic year. More exploratively, this study investigated how WM and TSR bidirectionally relate to children's academic performance.

Results

The findings of this study revealed a temporal relationship between WM and TSR: between WM-related problems in the classroom at baseline and conflict at 3-month follow-up, and between closeness at 3-month follow-up and WM-related problems in the classroom at 5-month follow-up. Moreover, the findings showed a bidirectional relationship between arithmetic performance and WM-related problematic behaviour.

Discussion

This study highlights that relationships between the teacher and students play an important role in supporting students' cognitive and academic development. Importantly, this study suggests that children with WM problems may benefit from interventions that focus on improving their relationships with teachers. Additionally, the findings propose that interventions targeting WM may also have positive effects on children's academic performance.

The influence of students' sense of social connectedness on prosocial behavior in higher education institutions in Guangxi, China: A perspective of perceived teachers' character teaching behavior and social support

The objective of this study is to examine the sense of social connectedness (SSC) and prosocial behavior (PB) of students in Guangxi higher education institutions in China and to further understand the factors influencing PB of higher education students. In this study, a total of 1,007 students were sampled from 8 Guangxi higher vocational schools through purposive sampling using questionnaires, of which 676 (67.1%) were male students and 331 (32.9%) were female students. This study further enriches self-determination theory by exploring the effects of teachers' character teaching behaviors and social support on PB, using the SSC as an intrinsic motivation. In addition, the results of the study revealed that SSC, perceived teacher character teaching behaviors and perceived social support (PSS) were positively related to students' PB. SSC affects PB not only directly, but also indirectly through the mediating role of perceived teacher character teaching behavior and perceived teacher support. Teacher character teaching behaviors and PSS also play a chain mediating role in the relationship between SSC and PB. Finally, this study provides strategies to optimize school character management for higher education students in order to meet their basic psychological needs and thus promote the production of PB.

Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Student Distress and School Dropout: A Comparison between the Perspectives of Preadolescents, Parents, and Teachers

This study investigates the principal risk and protective factors associated with student distress and school dropout in a group of preadolescents, through a qualitative and quantitative comparison between the perspectives of students, parents, and teachers. We administered a questionnaire to evaluate student distress and school dropout in a middle school (student's age range 13-15 years). We afterwards analyzed the responses of students at risk of school dropout. We also administered a semi-structured interview with their parents and their teachers. The results indicated significant levels of school distress in students (Collective Distress > 8.75) and a problematic relationship between parents and students (22.42%). We also found a problematic relationship between teachers and students (24.39%). The main protective factor of student distress and school drop-out indicated by the students was a more sensitive and supportive relationship with both parents and teachers. On the contrary, parents and teachers indicated as possible causes of school distress and drop-out the intrinsic students' motivation or other external factors associated with the community. The results of our study highlight the importance to apply a multidimensional and transactional psycho-educational model, in which the relationship between the students and their caretaker plays a major role.

Teacher's Emotional Display Affects Students' Perceptions of Teacher's Competence, Feelings, and Productivity in Online Small-Group Discussions

Teacher's emotions have been shown to be highly important in the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning. There is a recognized need to examine the essential role of teacher's emotions in students' academic achievement. However, the influence of teacher's displays of emotions on students' outcomes in small-group interaction activities, especially in the online environment, has received little attention in prior research. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between teacher's different emotional displays and students' perceptions of the teacher's competence, as well as students' collaborative feelings and productivity in online small-group discussions. Using a three-level between-subjects design, 74 participants were randomly divided into four-member groups comprising a teacher and three other participants. All the groups were asked to discuss an open-ended realistic problem using online software, during which the teacher's display of emotions varied (positive vs. negative vs. neutral). The participants' self-reported questionnaire data (perception of the teacher's competence, students' feeling of pleasure, collaborative satisfaction, and willingness to continue collaborating) and productivity (number of effective ideas expressed within a given time) were measured to compare the participants who were exposed to different emotional displays. As expected, the results showed that the participants who received the teacher's positive emotional display reported that they experienced higher levels of pleasure during the task. However, in contrast to our expectations, those under the negative emotional display condition showed a significantly higher level of productivity in the group task. In addition, compared to emotional display, the participants' perceptions of the teacher's competence were rated significantly higher under the neutral condition, and they reported higher levels of collaborative satisfaction and greater willingness to continue collaborating with their group. The findings have the potential benefit of informing educational practice on whether teachers should display their emotions in a small-group discussion or how they should display emotions following adjustment for the relative aim of the teaching activities.

The Role of Emotional Intelligence, the Teacher-Student Relationship, and Flourishing on Academic Performance in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Study

Educational context has an important influence on adolescents’ development and well-being, which also affects their academic performance. Previous empirical studies highlight the importance of levels of emotional intelligence for students’ academic performance. Despite several studies having analyzed the association and underlying mechanisms linking emotional intelligence and academic performance, further research, including both personal and contextual dimensions, is necessary to better understand this relation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of the effect of emotional intelligence has on academic performance, examining the possible mediating role of flourishing and the moderating role of the teacher-student relationship. A convenience sample of 283 adolescents (49.8% female), aged 12–18 years (M = 14.42, SD = 1.12), participated in a cross-sectional study by completing self-report questionnaires measuring emotional intelligence (Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale), flourishing (Flourishing Scale), and teacher-student relationship (Inventory of Teacher-Student Relationships) and reported their grades of the previous term on four mandatory subjects in the Spanish education curriculum. Results indicated that flourishing completely mediated the path from emotional intelligence to academic performance and that teacher-student relationship was a significant moderator in this model. Thus, in adolescents with worse teacher-student relationship, the association of emotional intelligence and flourishing was stronger than in adolescents with better teacher-student relationship. In turn, flourishing was positively associated with academic performance. These results suggest that it is crucial to foster better teacher-student relationship, especially in adolescents with low emotional intelligence, and to positively impact their well-being and their academic performance.