The Effects of Child-Teacher Relationships on Interpersonal Problem-Solving Skills of Children

WOS: 000281561000006Early positive relationships between children and adults are critical in the acquisition of children's problem-solving skills. The early teacher-child relationship has an important role in how a child negotiates the conflicts and manages relationships with peers. Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of the teacher-child relationship at kindergarten entry on the problem-solving skills of 5- and 6-year-old children. We examined how teachers' ratings of their relationships with their students had an impact on children's interpersonal problem-solving skills. We found that teachers perceive more conflicts with children who articulated either too few or too many problem-solving strategies. Teachers' perceptions of conflictual relationships with children were associated with the child's use of aggression during structured problem-solving interviews. Teachers' perceptions of conflicts were not, however, associated with children's prosocial problem-solving strategies. Our pilot results suggest that teachers may require different management strategies for children who demonstrate aggression and who are less likely to articulate positive alternatives