Getting off to a good start : problem behaviours, teacher-child relationship quality, and early school adjustment

Difficulty adjusting during the first years of school is associated with negative long-term academic and behaviour outcomes (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Ladd & Dinella, 2009; Qualter, Brown, Munn, & Rotenberg, 2010). Externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems can interfere with the ability to engage in learning or get along with others at school. Teacher-child relationship quality has been found to predict a variety of academic and social outcomes for children (e.g., Hamre & Pianta, 2001; Ladd & Burgess, 2001; Maldonado-Carreño & Votruba-Drzal, 2011; Pianta & Stuhlman, 2004). Of interest in the current study is whether teacher-child relationships moderate or mediate the association between problem behaviours observed at school and student ratings of school adjustment. The sample of students (n = 482) was taken from a longitudinal study of the school adjustment of Italian school children. Results from sequential regression analyses indicated that teacher ratings of students’ externalizing behaviours were related to student self-reports of loneliness at school and school liking. There was no evidence that teacher-child relationship features mediated the association between problem behaviours and school adjustment, although teacher-child closeness was found to moderate the relationship between physical aggression and school liking.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat