School attitude and perceived teacher acceptance: Developmental trajectories, temporal relations, and gender differences.

BACKGROUND: Positive school attitudes defined as students' school liking and school attachment are positively related to many desirable outcomes. Student-teacher relations have often been considered to be an important determinant of school attitudes.

AIMS: Students' perceived teacher acceptance was used as an indicator for student-teacher relations. Using a longitudinal data set, we examined the developmental trajectories of school attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance. In addition, we studied the temporal relations between both constructs.. We also examined gender differences in the mean levels, mean level development, and relations of school attitudes and teacher acceptance.

SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 2,376 German elementary school students.

METHODS: The students rated their school attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance three times across grade levels 3-4. Latent growth curve models were used to examine the developmental trajectories of both constructs. Cross-lagged panel models were used to examine the temporal relations between both constructs.

RESULTS: Positive school attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance declined across time. School attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance were positively and reciprocally related across the three waves. Boys and girls did not differ in their temporal relations between school attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance and in the developmental trajectories of both constructs. Girls were found to display higher mean levels of school attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance.

CONCLUSIONS: Research and practice should seek for effective means to counteract the decline of students' positive school attitudes and perceived teacher acceptance. Interventions to foster students' school attitudes might benefit from enhancing student-teacher relations, and vice versa.