Teachers’ and Children’s Differing Views on Relationships and Their Associations with Academic Outcomes

Preschool children’s relationships with their teachers play an important role in their learning and development. Despite this importance, extant research mostly relies on teachers’ perceptions about the relationships with children limiting our understanding of the bidirectional nature of these relationships. The present study aimed to explore teacher–child relationships reported by both teachers and preschool children and their associations with children’s math and literacy skills. Additionally, the moderating role of the teacher–child relationship on the association between children’s socioeconomic status and their math and literacy skills were examined. One hundred seventy nine preschoolers were interviewed about their relationships with teachers and directly assessed on their math and literacy skills. Their teachers reported on their relationships with each child on a survey, while parents provided demographic information. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine associations between teacher–child relationships and academic outcomes. Findings revealed limited concordance between teachers’ and children’s perception of the quality of the teacher–child relationship, with only teachers’ perceptions of children’s dependency being positively correlated to children’s perception of teacher negativity. Teachers’ perceptions of children’s dependency and children’s perception of teacher negativity were negatively associated with children’s academic achievement. Teachers’ perceptions of children’s dependency moderated the association between children’s socioeconomic background and math outcomes. We offer implications for teachers about how teacher–child relationships improve children’s academic achievement.