title: How teacher emotional support motivates students: The mediating roles of perceived peer relatedness, autonomy support, and competence.
abstract: Multilevel mediation analyses test whether students' mid-year reports of classroom experiences of autonomy, relatedness with peers, and competence mediate associations between early in the school year emotionally-supportive teacher-student interactions (independently observed) and student-reported academic year changes in mastery motivation and behavioral engagement. When teachers were observed to be more emotionally-supportive in the beginning of the school year, adolescents reported academic year increases in their behavioral engagement and mastery motivation. Mid-year student reports indicated that in emotionally-supportive classrooms, adolescents experienced more developmentally-appropriate opportunities to exercise autonomy in their day-to-day activities and had more positive relationships with their peers. Analyses of the indirect effects of teacher emotional support on students' engagement and motivation indicated significant mediating effects of autonomy and peer relatedness experiences, but not competence beliefs, in this sample of 960 students (ages 11-17) in the classrooms of 68 middle and high school teachers in 12 U.S. schools.
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Erik A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ruzek
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northern Virginia Community College, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hafen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gregory
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Amori Yee
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Mikami
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Pianta
keywords: Adolescence; Autonomy support; Behavioral engagement; Mastery achievement goals; Peer relatedness; Teacher emotional support