The teacher’s invisible hand: A meta-analysis of the relevance of teacher–student relationship quality for peer relationships and the contribution of student behavior.

28th February 2022 : 12:45 - 14:00

Online presentation in seminar room E, also available online.

Register here to watch online.

Speaker

Dr. Hinke, M., Endedijk,

University of Leiden, The Netherlands

Abstract

The relationships that students have with teachers and peers are important for their academic, social, and behavioral development. How teachers relate to students may affect students’ peer relationships and thereby foster or hamper students’ development. To shed more light on the teacher’s role with respect to peer relationships, this meta-analysis assessed the association between the quality of teacher–student and peer relationships (n = 297 studies; n = 1,475 unique effect sizes). We took student behavior into account, as it is known to affect both types of relationship. In addition, design characteristics such as positive versus negative aspects of relationships were considered via metaregression analyses. Most interestingly, we found, by use of meta-analytic structural equation modeling, that teacher-student relationship quality partially mediated the association between student behavior and peer relationships. For teachers, reducing negative aspects in their relationships with students who have behavioral problems can positively affect classroom peer relationships.