Children's relationship with teachers and bonds with school an investigation of patterns and correlates in middle childhood

The purpose of this study was to examine aspects of children's social and c ontextual experience in schools. Children (N = 289) in elementary schools c ompleted a measure designed to assess qualities of their relationships with teachers as well as their perceptions of school environments. Students wer e then grouped into categories based on these perceptions and comparisons w ere made between groups on measures of social and emotional adjustment. Fin dings indicated that student classifications resembled classifications repo rted by other researchers for student-teacher relationships. Students class ified as having poor relationships with teachers and poor bonds with school had poorer scores on self- and teacher ratings of social and emotional adj ustment than children classified as having positive relationships and bonds . These findings add to a growing body of research focused on understanding children's social and contextual experience in schools by providing a desc riptive typology that could be used by researchers and practitioners intere sted in identifying students who are having nonoptimal experiences in schoo l settings. (C) 2000 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.