Teacher-Student Relationships and Student School Engagement

The aim of this work was to examine the association between teacher-student relationships (TSR) and students’ school engagement. The work consists of three independent studies. The purpose of each of these studies were as follows: 1. The purpose of Study 1 (Chapter II) was to systematically search current literature on the impact of TSR on school engagement and provide an organized review of the existing literature. 2. The purpose of Study 2 (Chapter III) was to examine the structural association between TSR and students’ school engagement among Korean elementary school students. 3. The purpose of Study 3 (Chapter IV) was to examine gender differences in a structural association between TSR and students’ school engagement. In Study 1 (Chapter II), the analysis of 25 empirical studies presented several noticeable patterns in the association between TSR and school engagement depending on different aspects of TSR, different dimensions of school engagement, and different informant sources of both TSR and school engagement. Study 2 (Chapter III) empirically examined the structural associations among positive/negative TSR and the three dimensions of school engagement (i.e., behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement) in a sample of Korean elementary students. A major finding was that the association between TSR and school engagement differed depending upon which informant reported (i.e., teachers’ reports versus students’ reports). Another finding revealed that negative TSR had a strong influence on all three dimensions of school engagement. Finally, both positive and negative TSR were found to play unique roles in explaining different types of school engagement. Study 3 (Chapter IV) discovered gender differences in the structural associations among TSR and three types of school engagement. First, regarding the influence of positive or negative TSR, the two gender groups showed similar tendencies: Both boys’ and girls’ behavioral engagement were more responsive to negative TSR. In both groups, positive TSR had no effect on emotional engagement. Concerning gender differences, results indicated boys’ behavioral engagement was more responsive to negative TSR than was girls’ behavioral engagement. Another salient gender difference was found with respect to cognitive engagement: While both positive TSR and negative TSR significantly affected boys’ cognitive engagement, girls’ cognitive engagement was not affected by positive TSR or negative TSR