Reciprocal Relations Between Teacher−Student Relationships and Chinese School‐Aged Children's Learning Adaptation: Based on the Random Intercept Cross‐Lagged Panel Model Analysis

ABSTRACT Previous studies have supported the important roles of teacher−student relationships in student's learning adaptation, but most of them examined this issue at the between‐person level. To date, few studies separated within‐person variance from between‐person variance to explore the dynamic reciprocal relations between the above two constructs. This study aimed to explore whether the relations between teacher−student relationships and children's learning adaptation were reciprocal and whether the relation would differ by dimensions of teacher−student relationships and child gender. Five hundred and nineteen Chinese elementary school‐aged children ( M age = 10.35, SD = 0.98; 51.6% boys) participated in this survey. Students completed measures of teacher−student relationships and learning adaptation at three time points and data were analyzed using the random intercept cross‐lagged panel model (RI‐CLPM). At the between‐person level, teacher−student conflict and closeness were significantly correlated to children's learning adaptation. At the within‐person level, decreases in teacher−student conflict and increases in teacher−student closeness could significantly predict subsequent increases in student's learning adaptation, but increases in learning adaptation only predicted subsequent decreases in teacher−student conflict. Positive carry‐over stability effects were found for teacher−student closeness and conflict, but not for learning adaptation. In addition, there were no gender differences in the above relations. Our findings suggest that improving the teacher−student relationship quality would help to promote student's learning adaptation, which in turn would reduce the subsequent teacher−student conflict, but not necessarily strengthen the closeness between them.