The teacher student relationship as a predictor of preschoolers’ social anxiety

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of teacher-child relations and the social anxiety of the preschool child. Twelve preschool teachers provided socio-demographic data regarding children and themselves and rated their teacher student relations and candidate teachers rated preschool children’s (n=169) social anxiety. In this study, the Student-Teacher Relation Scale, developed by Pianta and adapted into Turkish by Beyazkürk was used to assess teacher-student relations. The social anxiety sub-dimension of the Children’s Behavior Assessment Scale developed by Şehirli was also administered. Students’ social anxiety score were negatively correlated with teacher-student relation closeness scores and positively correlated with teacher-student relationship conflict and dependence. A regression analysis indicated that the teacher-student relation was a significant predictor of children’s social anxiety. The results of the study indicated that teacher-student relationship in the preschool period has an important effect on children’s social anxiety. From the findings of this study, it can be inferred that intervention programs aiming at teachers’ professional advancement should consider student-teacher relationship as an issue to emphasize. Teachers should be encouraged to gain and use certain skills and methods which would enable them to establish warm and caring relationship with children in classroom.

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Teacher-child relationship ,

social anxiety ,

preschooler ,