Teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students: Effects of child age, gender, and ethnicity of teachers and children

This study assessed the extent to which teachers' perceptions of their rela tionships with young students varied as a function of child and teacher cha racteristics in a large, demographically diverse sample of 197 preschool an d kindergarten teachers and 840 children. Children were approximately evenl y divided between boys and girls. Regression analyses were conducted to exa mine the relation between teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students and (a) teacher ethnicity, (b) child age, ethnicity, and gender, and (c) the ethnic match between teacher and child. Child age and ethnicity and teacher-child ethnic match were consistently related to teachers' perc eptions, explaining up to 27% of the variance in perceptions of negative as pects of the teacher-child relationship, specifically teacher-child conflic t. When child and teacher had the same ethnicity, teachers rated their rela tionships with children more positively. The results are discussed in terms of classroom social processes related to children's adjustment and the mea surement of teacher-child relationships.