Teacher-Student Relationships and Adolescent Competence at School

KATHRYN R.
WENTZEL
2. TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS AND

ADOLESCENT COMPETENCE AT SCHOOL
INTRODUCTION
There is growing consensus that the nature and quality of children’s relationships
with their teachers play a critical and central role in motivating and engaging
students to learn (Wentzel, 2009). Effective teachers are typically described as
those who develop relationships with students that are emotionally close, safe, and
trusting, who provide access to instrumental help, and who foster a more general
ethos of community and caring in classrooms. These relationship qualities are
believed to support the development of students’ motivational orientations for
social and academic outcomes, aspects of motivation related to emotional well-
being and a positive sense of self, and levels of engagement in positive social and
academic activities. They also provide a context for communicating positive and
high expectations for performance and for teaching students what they need to
know to become knowledgeable and productive citizens.
Despite this consensus, there is much yet to learn about the nature of teacher-
student relationships and their significance for motivating students to excel
academically and behave appropriately. At the most general level, the conceptual
underpinnings of work in this area tend to suffer from lack of clarity and
specificity. For example, it is not always clear what scholars mean when they talk
about ‘relationships’ between teachers and students. Similarly, motivational
constructs are often vague and ill-defined (see Murphy & Alexander, 2000). In
addition, explanatory models that provide insights into the mechanisms whereby
teacher-student relationships have a meaningful impact on student outcomes are
rare.
In light of these issues, this chapter highlights various perspectives on teacher-
student relationships and motivation, including definitions of constructs and
theoretical perspectives that guide current work in this area. A specific model of
teacher-student relationships that focuses on relationship provisions in the form of
emotional warmth and expectations for goal pursuit is presented, and suggestions
for future directions for theory and research are offered.
T. Wubbels et al. (eds.), Interpersonal Relationships in Education, 19–36.

© 2012 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
WENTZEL
DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTUAL MODELS
Defining Teacher-Student Relationships
In the developmental literature, relationships are typically defined as enduring

connections between two individuals, uniquely characterized by degrees of
continuity, shared history, and interdependent interactions across settings and
activities (Collins & Repinski, 1994; Hinde, 1997). In addition, definitions are
frequently extended to include the qualities of a relationship, as evidenced by
levels of trust, intimacy, and sharing; the presence of positive affect, closeness, and
affective tone; and the content and quality of communication (Collins & Repinski,
1994; Laible & Thompson, 2007). Along each of these dimensions, relationships
can evoke positive as well as negative experiences. Finally, relationships are often
thought of in terms of their influence and what they provide the individual. In this
regard, researchers have focused on the benefits of various relationship provisions
such as emotional well-being, a sense of cohesion and connectedness, instrumental
help, a secure base, and a sense of identity for promoting positive developmental
outcomes (Bukowski & Hoza, 1989).
From a developmental perspective, relationships are believed to be experienced
through the lens of mental representations developed over time and with respect to
specific experiences (Bowlby, 1969; Laible & Thompson, 2007). Mental
representations that associate relationships with a personal sense of power and
agency, predictability and safety, useful resources, and reciprocity are believed to
be optimal for the internalization of social influence (see Kuczynski & Parkin,
2007). These representations also provide stability and continuity to relationships
over time. In this regard, early representations of relationships with caregivers are
believed to provide the foundation for developing relationships outside the family
context, with the quality of parent-child relationships (i.e., levels of warmth and
security) often predicting the quality of peer and teacher relationships in early and
middle childhood (see Wentzel & Looney, 2007).
Although stability and continuity are viewed as hallmarks of relationships, they
also are viewed as dynamic; relationships undergo predictable changes as a
function of development and the changing needs of the individual. For example,
over the course of adolescence, children’s relationships with parents improve with
respect to overall positive regard and reciprocity; in early and middle adolescence,
relationships with parents are marked by heightened negative affect and conflict;
and adolescents experience discontinuities in the frequency and meaning of
interactions with parents and the availability of resources from them (Collins &
Repinski, 1994). Similarly, relationships with peers change with age. Whereas
younger adolescents tend to form relationships within peer crowds and cliques,
older adolescents tend to focus on relationships with a more limited number of
friends (Brown, Mory, & Kinney, 1994). As children move through adolescence,
they also view relationships with peers as the most important sources of intimacy,
nurturance, companionship, and admiration (Lempers & Clark-Lempers, 1992).
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KATHRYN R.

2. TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS AND

T. Wubbels et al. (eds.), Interpersonal Relationships in Education, 19–36.

DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTUAL MODELS

Defining Teacher-Student Relationships

In the developmental literature, relationships are typically defined as enduring

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