With thousands of children getting ready to go back to school shortly, a new study has found that those who have a positive relationship with their teachers when they are around 10 or 11 years old, appear to behave better for up to four years.
According to the findings, a good teacher-student relationship at this crucial age appears to promote the development of ‘prosocial' behaviours, such as cooperation, while reducing problem behaviours, such as aggression in the classroom.
The study by European and Canadian researchers involved over 1,000 students who were attending 56 different schools. They assessed the teacher-student relationship from both sides, but found that it was how the student perceived the relationship that appeared to be most important when it came to behaviour.
Those who believed they had a more positive relationship with their teacher engaged in less aggressive behaviour right up to the age of 15.
They also displayed, on average, 18% more ‘prosocial' behaviour towards their peers and up to 38% less aggressive behaviour, compared to those who had an ambivalent or negative attitude towards their teacher.
Those who had a positive relationship with their teacher were also far less likely - 56% - to display ‘oppositional defiant' behaviour, such as vindictiveness and arguing, towards authority figures in general. Three years later, they were still around 22% less likely to show these negative behaviours compared to their peers.
In fact, the researchers found that the benefits of a positive teacher-student relationship were as strong, if not stronger, than the benefits associated with school-based ‘intervention programmes', such as anti-bullying programmes.
"Teachers play an important role in the development of children. Students who feel supported tend to be less aggressive and more prosocial, and we now have evidence that this is the case from preschool right through to adolescence.
"Educational and school policies should take this into consideration when supporting teachers in fostering their relationships with students," commented the study's lead author, Dr Ingrid Obsuth, of the University of Cambridge in the UK.
The researchers acknowledged that different children respond to the same teachers in different ways, but insisted that building healthy relationships should be part of the curriculum in teacher training and intervention programmes.
"Most adults remember some teachers that they admired and that fit their learning needs, and others that they felt hard done-by. This is not necessarily only because they have more or less supportive teachers. Each child will respond differently to a teacher's style and personality. Our study shows that once a child develops an impression of a teacher, one way or the other, it can have significant long-term effects on their behaviour," they added.
Details of these findings are published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.