title: The reciprocal relations between teachers' perceptions of children's behavior problems and teacher-child relationships in the first preschool year.
abstract: To examine the reciprocal relations between teacher-child relationships and children's behavior problems, the authors analyzed cross-lagged longitudinal data on teacher-child relationships and children's internalizing and externalizing problems using a structural equation modeling approach. The homeroom teachers of 105 first-year preschoolers aged 2-3 years filled in the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale and the Child Behavior Checklist/2-3, first at 3 months after the children's preschool entrance and then at the end of the first preschool year. Results showed significant cross-wave reciprocal relations between externalizing problems and teacher-child conflict and significant cross-wave relation from early internalizing problems to later teacher-child conflict. However, the cross-wave associations between internalizing and externalizing problems and teacher-child closeness were not significant.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, School of Psychology, Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, Beijing 100875, China. xiao@graduate.hku.hk
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012578:Schools, Nursery; D012951:Socialization; D013663:Teaching