School Psychology Review,

2014, Volume 43, No. 1, pp. 86-105

Students' Perceptions of Relatedness in the Classroom:

The Roles of Emotionally Supportive Teacher-Child
Interactions, Children's Aggressive-Disruptive Behaviors,
and Peer Social Preference

Rebecca A. Madill and Scott D. Gest

The Pennsylvania State University

Philip C. Rodkin
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract. This study examines the roles of emotionally supportive teacher-child

interactions and child characteristics (aggressive-disruptive behavior and low
peer social preference) in first-, third, and fifth-grade children's perceptiotis of
teacher closeness and sense of peer community. Results from a series of multi-
level models suggest that emotionally supportive teacher-child interactions are
associated with children's perceptions of closeness with their teachers (for boys
and girls), as well as a greater sense of peer community (for boys only).
Aggressive-disruptive children and boys tended to perceive less-close relation-
ships with their teachers. Results indicate that classroom-level factors, particu-
larly the supportive qualities of teachers' interactions with students, are associated
with children's perceived closeness with teachers and sense of peer community,
above and beyond the influence of children's individual characteristics.

The elementary school classroom is a "Eeelings of belonging may have an energetic

primary context in which children develop function, awakening enthusiasm, interest, and
social relationships (Maddox & Prinz, 2003), willingness to participate in academic activi-
providing opportunities to experience a sense ties" (p, 158). An important task of educa-
of belonging that is fundamental to emotional tional research is to identify the determinants
and physical health (Baumeister & Leary, of children's perceptions of relatedness, de-
1995). Children who feel connected to their fined as "secure and satisfying connections
teachers and classmates have greater intrinsic with others" (Deci, Vallerland, Pelletier, &
motivation for learning and are more engaged Ryan, 1991, p. 327), in the classroom context.
(Battistich, Solomon, Kim, Watson, & Schaps, According to the bioecological model of
1995; Hughes, 2011; Furrer & Skinner, 2003). human development (Bronfenbrenner & Mor-
As Furrer and Skinner eloquently argue, ris, 2006), development is influenced by com-

Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Rebecca A. Madill, Human Development and
Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 208 Beecher-Dock House, University Park, PA 16802;
e-mail: ram436@psu.edti.
Copyright 2014 by the National Association of School Psychologists, ISSN 0279-6015

86

plex interactions among person characteristics
(individual characteristics), proximal pro-
cesses (interactions with one's environment),
contexts, and time. In this study, we consider
the role that person characteristics and proxi-
mal processes known as emotionally support-
ive teacher-child interactions (ESTCIs;
Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) may have in
the development of children's sense of
relatedness.
There is compelling evidence suggest-
ing that children's perceptions of their class-
room relationships contribute to emerging pat-
terns of achievement motivation and academic
performance. For example, Hughes (2011)
found that children's reports of relational
warmth with their teachers predicted changes
in perceived academic competence, math
achievement, and school bonding; however,
teacher-reported relationship quality was not
associated with these outcomes. Moreover,
children's perceptions of the quality of rela-
tionships in the classroom community were
associated with greater intrinsic motivation for
learning (Battistich et al., 1995), and adoles-
cents' perceptions of emotional support from
peers were associated with student motivation,
beyond the effect of perceived emotional sup-
port from the teacher (Wentzel, Battle, Rus-
sell, & Looney, 2010).
High-quality daily interactions between
the teacher and child are thought to be a pri-
mary mechanism through which teachers in-
fluence children's development (Pianta, Bel-
sky, Vandergrift, Houts, & Morrison, 2008).
Early measurement efforts (Birch & Ladd,
1998; Pianta, 2001) focused on teacher reports
of closeness from an attachment perspective,
suggesting that closeness allowed teachers to
function as a secure base (e.g., a source of help
if the child struggles) and allowed the child to
be more engaged in school activities (Myers &
Pianta, 2008). Indeed, teacher ratings of close-
ness have been linked to concurrent classroom
engagement and competencies (Baker, 2006;
Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Pianta & Stuhlman,
2004), though the evidence that teacher-child
closeness predicts future competencies is
mixed (Hughes, Luo, Kwok, & Loyd, 2008;
Pianta & Stuhlman, 2004). More recent mea-
Relatedness in the Classroom
surement efforis have focused on direct obser-
vation of teacher-child interactions, thereby
bringing measurement operations closer to the
daily proximal interactional processes that
drive children's development (Bronfenbrenner
& Morris, 2006).
The core components of ESTCIs are
creating positive climates, minimizing nega-
tive experiences, responding to children's in-
dividual needs, and incorporating children's
interests into lessons (Pianta, La Paro, &
Hamre, 2008). Observed ESTCIs have been
associated with teacher reports of closer and
less-conflicted teacher-child relationships
(O'Connor, 2010; Hamre, Pianta, Downer, &
Mashburn, 2008), as well as growth in reading
skills in elementary school (Pianta, Belsky et
al., 2008).
Children's Perceptions of Relatedness
Teacher-Child Closeness
Researchers working from attachment
theory (Bowlby, 1982) consider children's
representations of closeness and conflict in
their relationships with their teachers to be the
critical elements of the teacher-child relation-
ship that drive children's behavior. For exam-
ple, second- and third-grade children's percep-
tions of closeness to their teachers predicted
changes in achievement the following year
(Hughes, 2011). However, the relative impor-
tance of different dimensions of teacher sup-
port, including emotional support, academic
support, clear behavioral and academic expec-
tations, and provision of a safe classroom
environment, are likely important areas for
research as well (Wentzel et al., 2010).
Wentzel et al. found each dimension to ac-
count for unique variance in adolescents' mo-
tivation, but there is not yet evidence among
young children that specific forms of support
also function differentially or are more predic-
tive than a single teacher-student closeness
index.
Teacher and child reports of closeness
are often discrepant. For example, Wu,
Hughes, and Kwok (2010) found a trivial cor-
relation between teacher and child reports of
relational warmth in a sample of at-risk third
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1
graders (r = 0.08). Given the unique impor-
tance of child-reported relational warmth for
certain motivational outcomes (Hughes,
2011), observed ESTCIs might be associated
not only with teacher-reported closeness, as
has previously been shown (O'Connor, 2010)
but also with children's perceptions of the
relationship.
Sense of Peer Community
We define a positive peer community as
a classroom with high levels of perceived
prosocial behavior among children: Children
perceive their classmates to respect, care
about, and support one another. Children's
perceptions of peer community have a general
reference, which is distinct from the personal
reference of their perceptions of peer support
(i.e., the degree to which a child personally
receives emotional support from peers; Good-
enow, 1993; Wentzel et al., 2010). Our notion
of peer community draws from the work of
Battistich et al. (1995) on positive classroom
communities, which are associated with
greater intrinsic motivation. In light of evi-
dence that support from teachers and support
from peers are uniquely predictive of several
outcomes (Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Good-
enow, 1993; Wentzel et al., 2010), we adapted
the measure of classroom community of Bat-
tistich et al. to focus almost exclusively on
perceptions of peer relationships. By distin-
guishing perceptions of teacher closeness from
perceptions of peer community, we can exam-
ine whether the benefits of ESTCIs extend
beyond the teacher-child relationship into the
peer community.
ESTCIs as Classroom-Level
Determinants of Teacher-ChUd
Closeness and Peer Community
The existing body of research on EST-
CIs has focused largely on children's aca-
demic outcomes (e.g., Connor, Son, Hindman,
& Morrison, 2005), with much less study of
possible mediating factors such as children's
sense of relatedness. Given that children's re-
ports of both teacher and peer relationship
quality have significant between-classroom
differences (i.e., children in the same class-
room provide similar reports), it is important
to examine features of the classroom, such as
ESTCIs, that may affect the quality of chil-
dren's relationships (Danielsen, Wiium, Wil-
helmsen, & Wold, 2010). For example,
O'Connor (2010) found that in classrooms
with more ESTCIs, children not only had
closer relationships with their teachers (based
on teacher report) but also exhibited less of a
decline in closeness across the elementary
school grades. Moreover, children had a
greater sense of community when teachers
were warm, emphasized cooperation, and en-
couraged students to share their ideas, all of
which are elements of ESTCIs (Schaps, Bat-
tistich, & Solomon, 2004). Finally, teachers
who received professional development that
addressed high-quality teacher-child interac-
tion had more positive interactions among
their students, perhaps because children ob-
served their teachers' positive and fair inter-
actions with students and modeled this inter-
action style with peers (Mikami, Gregory,
Allen, Pianta, & Lun, 2011).
ESTCIs are generally considered to be
positive features of classrooms, but they have
not yet been linked to children's own percep-
tions of relatedness. Identifying such a link
would open the door for research on interven-
tions that increase teachers' ESTCIs in an
attempt to improve children's relationships
with teachers and peers and, ultimately, chil-
dren's motivation and engagement.
Determinants of Relatedness
at the Child Level
Within the bioecological framework, we
focus on children's demand characteristics,
which are features that "invite or discourage
reactions from the social environment that can
disrupt or foster processes of psychological
growth" (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006, p.
796). In this section, we describe several child
characteristics thought to influence teacher-
child relationship quality and children's sense
of peer community.

Gender and Age
Girls are more likely than boys to have
close relationships with teachers, according to
both teacher and child reports of relationship
quality (Gest, Welsh, & Domitrovich, 2005;
Jerome, Hamre, & Pianta, 2009). Teacher-
child relationships become less close across
the elementary school grades (Baker, 2006;
O'Connor, 2010). It may be that teachers of
younger students see the provision of emo-
tional support as a core component of their
jobs, whereas upper-grade teachers believe
they should focus on instruction (Jerome et al.,
2009). Younger children also report stronger
peer communities (Gest et al., 2005).
Aggressive-Disruptive Behavior
Some children are at risk for poor rela-
tionships with teachers and peers because of
behavior problems (Campbell, Spieker,
Burchinal, Poe, & NICHD Early Child Care
Research Network, 2006; Gest et al., 2005).
Dealing with disruptive children's classroom
interruptions may frustrate teachers, resulting
in a strained relationship between the teacher
and disruptive child (O'Connor, 2010). More-
over, whereas most children show increases in
the quality of their friendships across middle
childhood, physically aggressive children ac-
tually show decreases in their friendship qual-
ity between the ages of 9 and 12 years (Camp-
bell et al., 2006).
Peer Acceptance, Rejection, and Social
Preference
Whereas a child's perceived peer com-
munity refiects his or her sense of prosocial
behavior among classmates, the sociometric
indices of peer acceptance, rejection, and so-
cial preference ("like most" minus "like
least") reflect the consensus of peers regarding
how liked or disliked the child is in the class-
room (Asher & Coie, 1990). The role of so-
ciometric status in the teacher-child relation-
ship has not been well studied, but two corre-
lational analyses found that children who were
less preferred by their classmates tended to
have less-close teacher-child relationships, as
Relatedness in the Classroom
reported by both the teacher (Wu et al., 2010)
and child (Gest et al., 2005). Neither study
controlled for children's behavior problems,
which may have accounted for the correlation.
Stronger evidence suggests that children with
low sociometric status believe that their peers
do not support them (Salmivalli & Isaacs,
2005) and often feel increasingly lonely across
the elementary school grades (Fontaine et al.,
2009). What has not yet been explored is
whether less-preferred children also perceive a
poor peer community.
Potential Moderation Effects of ESTCIs
Hamre and Pianta (2005) posited in their
academic risk model that children who have
the greatest risk for academic failure may ben-
efit the most from ESTCIs. We extend this
model and suggest that ESTCIs will be espe-
cially beneficial to children with characteris-
tics that put them at risk for negative relation-
ships (e.g., aggressive-disruptive children,
less-preferred children, and boys). Such inter-
actions between children's demand character-
istics and their experiences of proximal pro-
cesses are a critical component of the bioeco-
logical theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
2006). For example, Buyse, Verschueren,
Doumen, Van Damme, and Maes (2008)
found that children who were aggressive in
kindergarten were most likely to develop close
teacher-rated relationships with their first-
grade teachers when the first-grade teachers
had high ESTCIs. ESTCIs may also be impor-
tant for at-risk children's perceptions of peer
community; such children may benefit the
most from the increased social skills and pos-
itive peer interactions that have been linked to
high ESTCIs (Mikami et al., 2011; Mashbum
et al., 2008).
Present Study
Given the importance of ESTCIs, we
build on past research by considering child
characteristics (gender, social preference, ag-
gressive-disruptive behavior) that may affect
relatedness and explore whether ESTCIs are
especially important for children at risk for
negative relationships. On the basis of the
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1
literature reviewed earlier, we expected that
(a) children in classrooms with more ESTCIs
would report closer relationships with their
teachers and a stronger sense of peer commu-
nity; (b) older children, boys, aggressive-dis-
ruptive children, and less-preferred children
would report lower scores on these measures
of relatedness; and (c) the association between
ESTCIs and relatedness would be strongest for
boys, aggressive-disruptive children, and
less-preferred children.
Method
Participants
Children and teachers were involved in
a study that examined social ecologies and
child outcomes in elementary school class-
rooms. Forty-one classrooms participated,
providing a total of 794 students in first, third,
and fifth grades. Written consent was obtained
from classroom teachers and from the parents
of 645 students. After nonparticipating and
absent students were accounted for, a total of
635 students (80% of all possible students)
participated in at least one of the two survey
administrations {T¡ = 76%, T2 = 76%). One
classroom was excluded because of low stu-
dent participation (32%), and one child did not
respond to the measures used in this study,
which brought the final sample to 40 class-
rooms (15 first-grade classrooms, 14 third-
grade classrooms, and 11 fifth-grade class-
rooms) and 628 children (52% male).
Schools were located in small-sized to
midsized urban areas in central Illinois and
rural areas in central Pennsylvania. Partici-
pants in Illinois were drawn from three
schools and were racially diverse (45% Afri-
can American, 41% White, 3% Asian, 5%
Hispanic, and 6% other race). A total of 83%
of the participating children in Illinois were
considered economically disadvantaged based
on receipt of free or reduced-price lunches. In
Pennsylvania, students were drawn from four
schools within one school district. Reflecting
the overall racial makeup of the district, par-
ticipating students in Pennsylvania were ra-
cially homogeneous (97% White, 1% Black,
1% Hispanic, and 0.3% Asian), and 43% of
90
participants were economically disadvan-
taged. The average class sizes in Pennsylvania
(M = 18 students, range = 12-25 students)
were slightly smaller than those in Illinois
(M = 20 students, range = 13-27 students).
Measures
Social relatedness: Teacher-child
closeness. Teacher-child closeness was con-
ceptualized as the degree to which students
perceived a warm, caring relationship with
their teachers. Five items were adapted for
student report from the closeness subscale of
the teacher-reported Student-Teacher Rela-
tionship Scale (Pianta, 2001), forming an in-
ternally consistent scale at each assessment
point (a, = .84, a2 = .89). Intraclass corre-
lation coefficients (ICCs) indicated that scores
were similar across 8 weeks (averaged-wave
ICC = 0.79, single-wave ICC = 0.65). Items
included "I trust my teacher," "I like being
around my teacher," "My teacher is kind to
me," "I feel safe when my teacher is around,"
and "My teacher respects me." Each item was
rated on a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always).
Scale scores were averaged across the two
assessments. Because the single-wave ICC
was in the upper end of "fair to good reliabil-
ity" (0.40-0.75) as defined by Fleiss (1986,
p. 7), we used the scale score from a single
time point for children who participated only
once. Gest et al. (2005) established the validity
and utility of a similar measure (i.e., 4 of the 5
items were identical, whereas "My teacher
treats me fairly" was used in place of "My
teacher respects me") in a sample of third to
fifth graders and found that teacher-rated ag-
gression predicted declines in child-reported
teacher closeness across a school year. Find-
ings were in line with O'Connor (2010), who
also found that children with behavior prob-
lems had less-close relationships with their
teachers. At each time point in our study,
child-reported teacher-child closeness (the
average of the five items) was only modestly
correlated with a four-item teacher-reported
measure of closeness and confiict based on the
Student-Teacher Relationship Scale of Pianta
(2001) (r,/ = 0.25, r,2 = 0.21); these correla-

tions were slightly higher than those found by
Wu et al. (2010) in a sample of at-risk third
graders.
Social relatedness: Peer community.
Peer community was conceptualized as the
degree to which students felt that their class-
room was a place in which children respected
and helped one another. Five items, drawn
primarily from the Sense of Community Scale
(Battistich et al., 1995) and reworded to focus
on the classroom context rather than the
school context, formed an internally consistent
scale (a, = .83, a2 = .82). Items included
"Kids in my classroom work together to solve
problems," "People care about each other in
my classroom," "Kids in my classroom do
nice things for each other," "Kids in my class-
room help each other," and "My teacher and
classmates treat each other with respect." We
also calculated the scale dropping the final
item because it mentions the teacher (and our
focus was on peers), but nearly all results that
were initially significant at the p < .05 level
remained significant (the main effect of
teacher sensitivity/regard for student perspec-
tives dropped from p = .04 to p = .07). We
retained this item in the scale because it in-
cludes reference to peers and does not substan-
tially alter results. Each item was rated on a
scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always), and the five
items were averaged to obtain a score at each
time point. As with teacher-child closeness,
scores from both time points were averaged
before analysis and single scores were used
for children who participated only once
(averaged-wave ICC = 0.78, single-wave
ICC = 0.63).
Evidence for the potential reliability of
our peer community scale comes from the
study of children's perceived school support-
iveness performed by Gest et al. (2005), which
used four of the items described earlier (ex-
cluding "do nice things"), with the original
school-focused stems (e.g., "kids at my
school" rather than "kids in my classroom").
In their study, third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade
children responded to the four items during
both the fall and spring of a single academic
year. Scores were calculated as the average of
Relatedness in the Classroom
the four items at each time point. Gest et al.
found that the scale showed acceptable inter-
nal consistency at both time points, as well as
moderate stability across 6 months.
Validity of relatedness scales. To ver-
ify that our measures of teacher and peer re-
latedness were indeed measuring distinct as-
pects of relatedness, we examined the corre-
lations among scales across time. Specifically,
we compared the stability of each scale to its
T¡-T2 cross-domain correlations, using Hotell-
ing's test for dependent correlations. In the
case of Tj teacher-child closeness, the stability
correlation {r = 0.68) was significantly stron-
ger than the correlation with Tj peer commu-
nity [r = 0.37; t¿;i^53l) = 9.09, p < .001].
Similarly, the stability of peer community
(r = 0.63) was significantly stronger than its
correlation with Tj teacher closeness
[r = 0.36; idiff(529) = 7.44, p < .001].
Child characteristics. Children's ag-
gressive-disruptive behavior and social pref-
erence were assessed using peer nomination
measures. Each participating child was asked
to circle the names of classmates who fit the
description provided in each item. For every
item, proportion scores were computed for
each child by dividing the number of received
nominations by the number of participating
children (other than the self). Thus, a child
who receives 10 nominations for "starts
fights" and has 20 participating classmates
would have a proportion score of 0.5 (i.e., 10
of 20). In other words, half of all classmates
believe that child starts fights. The social pref-
erence scale and aggression scale were each
computed using the proportion scores for sev-
eral items, as described below.
Two peer nomination items were used to
assess social preference; Children indicated
which of their classmates they would (a) "like
most to play with" and (b) "like least to play
with." Social preference was calculated as the
"like most" proportion score minus the "like
least" proportion score, consistent with tradi-
tional practice in peer relations research
(Asher & Coie, 1990). Aggressive-disruptive
behavior was measured with three peer-nom-
91
School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1
ination items: "These kids start fights," "These
kids make fun of other kids," and "These kids
get in trouble" (a, = .90, aj = .89). Across
the two assessments, stability was very strong
for both social preference (averaged-wave
ICC = 0.83, single-wave ICC = 0.72) and
aggressive-disruptive behavior (averaged-
wave ICC = 0.93, single-wave ICC = 0.87),
so the averages of the cross-wave scores were
used for analyses.
Ohserved teacher-child interac-
tions. Teacher-student interaction quality was
measured with the Classroom Assessment
Scoring System (CLASS) for kindergarten
through Grade 3 (CLASS K-3; Pianta, La
Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Each classroom was
observed for four 20-minute cycles, with 10
minutes allowed for scoring between each cy-
cle. The CLASS assesses 10 dimensions of
interaction quality, with dimension scores of 1
to 7 representing low to high levels. The di-
mensions are organized into three domains:
emotional support, instructional support, and
classroom organization. Given our belief that
emotionally supportive interactions provide a
sense of security and attachment, and should
therefore influence perceptions of relatedness,
we focus on the four dimensions within the
emotional support domain. Observers pro-
vided scores based on global ratings of quality
rather than frequency counts of specific behav-
iors. The positive climate dimension describes
the extent to which classroom interactions
(both teacher-child and child-child) were
warm and respectful. The negative climate
dimension rates the frequency and intensity of
teacher behaviors such as anger, yelling, and
teasing, as well as observed negativity among
students. Teacher sensitivity includes teach-
ers' ability to anticipate and respond appropri-
ately to children's needs, both academic and
emotional, and the degree to which students
appear to be comfortable using their teachers
as resources. Regard for student perspectives
measures the extent to which teachers allow
children to have autonomy and let children's
interests guide them.
We created two composite scales to dis-
tinguish between emotional support that in-
92
cluded peer-to-peer interactions (positive cli-
mate/negative climate [reverse scored], PC/
NC) and emotional support based on pure
teacher-child interactions (teacher sensitivity/
regard for student perspectives, TS/RSP).
Each of these new composite scales was cre-
ated by averaging the two dimensions in-
volved, retaining the original CLASS scale of
1-7. The PC/NC and TS/RSP scales ranged
from 3.44-6.13 and 5.25-6.88, respectively.
Observers attended a 2-day CLASS
training taught by a certified CLASS trainer.
Reliability was assessed using five 20-minute
videos that had previously been given a gold-
standard score. After the standard CLASS cer-
tification protocol, observers were considered
reliable when (a) at least 80% of their scores
were within one point of the gold standard and
(b) at least three of the five cycles for each
dimension were within one point of the gold
standard.
Of the 160 20-minute CLASS cycles
observed for this study, 142 were scored by
two observers. We selected this dual-observer
system to maximize the reliability of the
scores used in analyses because rater variance
is a critical source of measurement error for
the CLASS procedure (Raudenbush, Martinez,
Bloom, Zhu, &Lin, 2008). The percent-within-
one-point criterion indicated acceptable reli-
ability based on cycle-specific ratings (posi-
tive climate = 86%, negative climate = 99%,
teacher sensitivity = 77%, and regard for stu-
dent perspectives = 74%). We also computed
ICCs as a more stringent test of interrater
agreement based on each observer's average
score across the four 20-minute cycles: ICCs
fell in the upper end of the fair-to-good range
defined by Reiss (1986) (PC/NC composite
ICC = 0.73, TS/RSP composite ICC = 0.62).
Ratings were averaged across both observers
to provide scores for analyses.
The CLASS K-3 is intended for use in
kindergarten through third grade, but the Na-
tional Institute of Child Health and Human
Development's Study of Early Child Care and
Youth Development successfully used the
Classroom Observation System (an earlier
version of the CLASS) in prekindergarten
through fifth-grade classrooms. The same

three-domain solution was found in both lower
and upper grades (Hamre, Pianta, Mashburn,
& Downer, 2007), and predictive validity was
demonstrated by emotionally supportive inter-
actions predicting growth in math and reading
through fifth grade (Pianta, Belsky et al.,
2008).
Procedure
After receiving approval from the uni-
versity's human subjects review board, we
obtained informed consent from teachers.
Once a teacher agreed to participate, parent
consent forms describing the project were sent
home with all children in the class. Participat-
ing teachers were reimbursed for their time.
Classrooms were provided a pizza party if at
least 90% of parent consent forms were re-
turned, regardless of how many parents con-
sented to participation. Classroom observa-
tions and student surveys were conducted
early in the spring semester, and students com-
pleted a second round of surveys approxi-
mately 8 weeks later. We designed the two
assessments to provide estimates of short-term
reliability of measures rather than to model
developmental change, which we would not
expect to occur across such closely spaced
assessments. Averaging across the two time
points provided us with more reliable mea-
sures for participants who provided data at
both time points (87% of all participants). For
the remaining participants, we used scores
from the time point for which they provided
data. Surveys were group administered by a
team of trained graduate research assistants for
the students in third and fifth grades. Students
in first grade responded to survey questions in
an individual interview with a trained research
assistant.
Data Analysis Plan
Appropriate data transformations were
made for nonnormal distributions. Class size,
CLASS scores, social preference, and aggres-
sive-disruptive behavior were grand mean
centered; gender was coded as 0 for male
and 1 for female. Grade was a categorical
variable, with first grade as the reference
Relatedness in the Classroom
group. This allowed the intercept to be inter-
preted as the expected level of relatedness for
a first-grade boy with average scores on all
covariates.
Because children in the same classroom
are likely to be more sii^ilar than children in
different classrooms, classmates' scores are
not independent and regular regression analy-
sis would be biased (West, Welch, & Galecki,
2007). Multilevel models address this concern
by modeling both classroom-level variance
and unique-individual variance. Our analyses
follow the recommendations of West et al.
(2007) for analyzing children nested within
classrooms using SAS PROC MIXED to esti-
mate multilevel models (SAS Institute, 2008).
We first ran unconditional models, which pre-
dict the dependent variable using only the
fixed and random effects of the intercept; no
predictors are included in this model. We also
estimated a model without a random intercept
and used likelihood ratio tests (LRTs) to de-
termine whether the random intercept model
was a significant improvement over the model
without a random intercept. Models were es-
timated using restricted maximum likelihood
(REML) estimation. ICCs were calculated to
describe the proportion of variance in the de-
pendent variable that is due to variation be-
tween classrooms, rather than between stu-
dents (West et al., 2007).
Testing random slopes. Random
slopes would indicate that the association be-
tween a child characteristic (e.g., aggressive-
disruptive behavior) and relatedness (teacher
closeness, peer community) varies across
classrooms. We examined the significance of
the random slopes of gender, social prefer-
ence, and aggressive-disruptive behavior in
separate models containing all Level 1 fixed
effects and a random intercept estimated with
REML. Using log-likelihood tests (LRTs), we
determined whether including the random
slope was a significant improvement over a
model with the slope fixed at zero. Random
slopes with negative or zero variance were not
considered in cross-level interactions. Given
our a priori hypothesis for moderation effects,
however, we proceeded to test cross-level in-
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1
teractions when the random-slope estimate
was positive, regardless of its significance.
Main-effects models. The first and
second hypotheses, which addressed the main
effects of gender, aggressive-disruptive be-
havior, social preference, and ESTCIs on re-
latedness, were tested in four separate models
using REML estimation. Each model included
fixed effects for either PC/NC or TS/RSP, as
well as child-level predictors, classroom-level
covariates (grade, class size), and a random
intercept. A fixed effect for school was also
included by dummy coding the seven schools
because there were too few schools to justify a
third level in the multilevel model. The effect
of school membership was not a significant
predictor in any models.
Moderation models. To test our third
hypothesis—that is, ESTCIs are most impor-
tant for children who are at risk of developing
negative relationships—we estimated a series
of moderation models. Each model included a
random intercept, the random slope(s) previ-
ously identified, all fixed effects, and the in-
teraction between any child characteristic(s)
that had random slopes and either PC/NC or
TS/RSP. Models were first estimated using
maximum likelihood estimation, which is the
preferred technique for testing the significance
of fixed effects (West et al, 2007). LRTs were
used to determine whether the addition of the
interaction term was a significant improve-
ment over a model with the random slope but
without interaction. The parameter estimates
for the final models were obtained using
REML estimation. Although we did not hy-
pothesize that grade level would moderate the
effects of either TS/RSP or PC/NC on relat-
edness, we tested the possibility that the dif-
ferent survey formats might have led to dif-
ferential associations between ESTCIs and re-
latedness outcomes in first grade versus third
grade or fifth grade. None of these interaction
effects were significant, so they were omitted
from the models.
Missing data. Analyzing only those
children who responded to all items can lead
to biased results (Graham, 2012). In our study.
94
participating children infrequently skipped
items (range = I.2%-6.3% missing per item).
We imputed missing values using SAS PROC
MI (SAS Institute, 2008). Imputing multilevel
data are more complex than imputing indepen-
dent data because the imputation model must
acknowledge the possibility of within-cluster
similarity (Graham, 2012). Researchers often
include dummy-coded classroom indicators as
auxiliary variables in the imputation model to
retain within-cluster similarity, but this ap-
proach may result in ICCs that are substan-
tially larger than those in real life (Andridge,
2011). On the basis of the recommendations of
Graham (2012), we imputed two sets of 20
datasets: the first set included classroom indi-
cators and the second set did not, although
other classroom-level variables (e.g., class
size, CLASS scores) were included. Both of
our imputation models included several other
auxiliary variables (e.g., child gender, child-
reported motivation) to improve the imputa-
tion model. We used SAS PROC MIANA-
LYZE (SAS Institute, 2008) to combine re-
sults from multilevel models. For LRTs, we
calculated the log-likelihood difference for
each imputed dataset and then combined
the 40 difference scores and referred them to
the appropriate x^ distribution(s) to obtain an
overall significance value (Li, Meng, Raghu-
nathan, & Rubin, 1991).
Results
Descriptive Statistics and Data
Transformations
Descriptive statistics are presented in
Table 1. On average, children reported high
teacher closeness. Teacher closeness was
highest in first grade (M = 4.47, SD = 0.69),
followed by third grade (M = 4.31,
SD = 0.78) and fifth grade (M = 3.97, SD =
1). Because most children reported very close
relationships with their teachers, data were
negatively skewed (M = 4.29, median = 4.60)
and were transformed via exponentiation be-
fore analysis. Children in Pennsylvania per-
ceived closer relationships with their teachers
(M = 4.37) than did children in Illinois
(M = 4.16; t = -2.43, p = .02). Ratings of
 Relatedness in the Classroom

Tahle 1
Correlations and Descriptive Statistics for Measures of Relatedness,
Child Characteristics, and CLASS Scores
4 M SD Minimum Maximum

1. Perceived teacher closetiess .48* -.29* .11* .17* - . 2 3 * 4.260.79 1 5

2. Perceived peer community — -.08* .08* -.03 -.38* 3.640.87 1 5
3. Aggressive-disruptive behavior — -.44* -.29* .20* 0.180.19 0 0.93
4. Social preference — .06 -.08* 0.030.29 - 1 0.77
5. Gender (0 = male, 1 = female) — .02 304 girls, 324 boys
6. Grade — 234 first, 235 third, 159 fifth
CLASS dimension 10 11 12 M SD Minimum Maximum
7. Positive climate (PC) .51* .74* .73* .97* .81* 5.32 0.69 4.13 6.75
8. Negative climate (NC) — -.38* - . 4 1 * - . 7 1 * -.44* 1.20 0.26 1 2
9. Teacher sensitivity (TS) — .64* .71* .89* 4.82 0.67 3.63 6.25
10. Regard for student perspectives
(RSP) — .72* .92* 4.40 0.78 2.88 6.13
11. PC/NC^-" .79* 4.61 0.66 3.44 6.13
12. TS/RSP" — 6.05 0.43 5.25 6.88

Note. CLASS = Classroom Assessment Scoring System. N = 40 classrooms and 628 children. Correlations are based
on nonimputed data.
"Composite scales are the average of the two CLASS dimensions.
""Negative climate was reverse scored before averaging.
*/; < .05.

peer community were lower but still above the
scale midpoint; again, first graders had higher
scores (first grade: M = 4.04, SD = 0.78; third
grade: M = 3.59, SD = 0.82; fifth grade:
M = 3.20, SD = 0.82). Children in Pennsyl-
vania perceived slightly more peer community
(M = 3.76) compared with children in Illinois
(M = 3.53), but the difference was not signif-
icant (i = -1.61, p = .11). Perceptions of
teacher closeness and peer community were
moderately intercorrelated (/• = 0.48, p <
.001).
On average, children were perceived
to be aggressive-disruptive by 18% of their
classmates (M = 0.18, SD = 0.19); scores
were square root transformed to address the
positive skew that resulted from very few
highly aggressive children. Social prefer-
ence scores indicated that children were
generally liked more than they were disliked
by classmates, but there was wide variabil-
ity (M = 0.03, SD = 0.29). Aggressive-
disruptive behavior and social preference
were negatively correlated (r = -0.44, p <
.001). Teachers generally provided moderately
high ESTCIs (see Table 1). The four dimen-
sions were moderately to strongly
intercorrelated.
Between-CIassroom Differences in
Relatedness
The LRTs for the unconditional models
showed significant between-classroom differ-
ences in both teacher closeness and peer com-
munity ip < .001). ICCs indicated that 13%
of the variance in teacher closeness was due to
between-classroom differences, as was 20% of
the variance in peer community.
ESTCIs as Determinants of Children's
Relatedness
Perceived teacher closeness. Results
from the main-effects models are presented
in Table 2. In comparison with first graders,
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1

Table 2
Predicting Perceived Relatedness From Observed Emotionally
Supportive Interactions
Perceived Teacher Closeness Perceived Peer Community

Main Effects CLASS Main Effects CLASS

Only" Moderation^ Only" Moderation''

Predictor b SE b SE b SE b

Level 1
Intercept 95.09* 8.75 95.58* 8.76 4.18* 0.14 4.20* 0.14
First grade (reference group) — — — — — — — —
Third grade -6.42 7.09 -6.36 7.12 -0.40* 0.11 -0.40* 0.11
Fifth grade -26.59* 7.09 -26.75* 8.00 -0.86* 0.12 -0.86* 0.12
Gender 16.61* 4.62 16.59* 4.49 -0.02 0.08 -0.02 0.07
Social preference -3.51 7.92 -3.12 7.92 0.12 0.15 0.15 0.15
Aggressive-disruptive
behavior -30.69* 10.70 -29.84* 10.71 0.10 0.18 0.13 0.18
Level 2
Class size -0.85 1.41 -0.95 1.41 -0.03 0.02 -0.03 0.02
TS/RSP composite'^ 12.16* 5.20 17.79* 6.02 0.16* 0.08 0.31* 0.09
TS/RSP X Gender -10.51 6.69 -0.28* 0.11
TS/RSP X Social
Preference 0.18 0.22
PC/NC composite'^ 12.40 8.98 17.15 10.97 0.21 0.14 0.32 0.17
PC/NC X Gender -7.37 10.48 -0.23 0.18
PC/NC X Social
Preference 0.76* 0.31

Note. CLASS = Classroom Assessment Scoring System; PC/NC = positive climate/negative climate (reversed);
TS/RSP = teacher support/regard for student perspectives. N = 628 children and 40 classrooms. Multilevel modeling
accounts for nesting within classrooms. Models control for the fixed effect of school membership {n = 7); the omnihus
test for effect of school was nonsignificant. Class size, social preference, aggressive-disruptive hehavior, and CLASS
scores are grand mean centered. For gender, 0 indicates male.
'A random intercept and random slope were included for gender.
•"A random intercept and random slopes were included for gender and social preference.
"Effects of TS/RSP and PC/NC were estimated in separate models. Estimates of child-level predictors and class size are
from the TS/RSP model. (Estimates were nearly identical in the PC/NC model.)
*p < .05.

perceptions of teacher closeness were lower
among fifth graders {p < .001) but not third
graders. Girls perceived more closeness than
boys {p < .001). Social preference was unre-
lated to teacher closeness, and aggressive-
disruptive behavior was associated with less
teacher closeness {p < .01). Class size was
unrelated to closeness. Teachers' observed
TS/RSP scores were associated with greater
closeness {p < .05), whereas PC/NC was not
96
associated with closeness. There was no over-
all effect of school assignment on teacher
closeness.
The series of random-slope models (Ta-
ble 3) indicated that the random slope of gen-
der was positive but not significant {p = .21).
Moderation models thus explored cross-level
interactions of ESTCIs with gender. Nonsig-
nificant LRTs indicated that the interactions
did not improve the fit of the TS/RSP or

Table 3
Variance Components of Random-Slope Coefficients
Teacher-Child Closeness
Random Slope Variance Component
Gender 217.29
Social preference 0"
Aggressive-disruptive behavior 0"
"Signifieance is based on likelihood ratio tests in which the —2 restricted maximum likelihood differences were referred
to a mixture of x^ distributions (Xi^, X2^)-
''At least one imputed dataset estimated a variance component that was negative or zero. Because the variance
component was not significant in any single imputed dataset, we concluded that the random effect should be fixed at
zero.
PC/NC models. We concluded that main-ef-
fects models were the preferred model.
Perceived peer community. The
main-effects models predicting sense of peer
community are presented in Table 2. Both
third and fifth graders perceived less peer
community compared with first graders (p <
.001). Gender, social preference, aggressive-
disruptive behavior, and class size were unre-
lated to perceived peer community. TS/RSP
was associated with higher perceptions of peer
community (p < .05), but PC/NC was not.
There was no overall effect of school assign-
ment on sense of peer community.
The random-slopes models (see Table 3)
indicated that both gender and social prefer-
ence had positive, nonsignificant slope vari-
ance between classrooms. In the TS/RSP
model, the LRT indicated a significant im-
provement when the interactions were in-
cluded (p < .05). The Gender X TS/RSP
interaction was significant (p < .05): TS/RSP
was positively associated with boys' perceived
peer community but not girls' perceived peer
community (see Figure la). The interaction
model was also preferred in the PC/NC inter-
action model (p < .05 for LRTs). Only the
social preference X PC/NC interaction was
significant: The association between PC/NC
and peer community was highest among the
most-preferred children (see Figure lb).
Relatedness in the Classroom
Peer Community
SE Variance Component SE
183.84 .21 0.06 0.05 .10
0.23 0.16 .09
0"
Post hoc analyses. To clarify whether
positive climate or negative climate drove the
null effects of the PC/NC composite score, we
conducted post hoc analyses in which positive
climate and negative climate were tested in
separate models. Results indicated that posi-
tive climate was not associated with teacher
closeness (b = 5.35, p = .34) or peer com-
munity (b = 0.07, p = .39) whereas negative
climate was marginally associated with
teacher closeness (b = —25.61, /? = .06) and
significantly associated with peer community
(b = -0.52, p = .01).
Discussion
The goal of this study was to examine
predictors of children's sense of relatedness to
teachers and peers in elementary school. We
hypothesized that teachers' emotionally sup-
portive interactions with students would be
associated with greater relatedness and that
aggressive-disruptive behaviors and peer re-
lationship difficulties would be associated
with lower perceived relatedness. In this sec-
tion, we discuss the results in terms of each
predictor of relatedness.
Grade and Gender Differences in
Perceived Relatedness
Children in the lower grades reported
closer relationships with their teachers; even
97
School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1

— 3rd Grade Boys

•-3rd Grade Girls

4 6
Observed Teacher Sensitivity/Regard for Studetit Perspectives
(TS/RSP)

•Low Peer Social

Preference
• High Peer Social
Preference

5.5 6.5
Observed Positive Climate/Negative Ciitnate (PC/NC)

Figure 1. Associations between emotionally supportive teacher-child interac-

tions and children's perceptions of peer community varied across levels of
moderators. (A) For hoys, hut not for girls, teacher sensitivity/regard for
student perspectives (TS/RSP) was associated with greater perceptions of peer
community. (B) Positive climate/negative climate (PC/NC) was more strongly
associated with perceived peer community for children with greater social
preference.
98

SO, fifth graders had relatively high levels of
closeness (M = 3.97 on a scale of 1-5). Fifth
graders may have more realistic perceptions of
their relationships with teachers. Such an ex-
planation is in line with research on the devel-
opmental trajectory of children's self-concept:
Increasing cognitive capacity, including the
ability to compare one's abilities with the abil-
ities of peers, is associated with a shift from
idealistic to more realistic academic and social
self-concepts from early childhood through
adolescence (Dweck, 2002). Furthermore, it is
likely that only a small subset of children in
the upper grades perceived negative relation-
ships with their teachers. For example, Gest et
al. (2005) similarly found that the majority of
third through fifth graders perceived extremely
positive relationships with their teachers. The
small number of children who reported more
ambivalent feelings about their teachers also
tended to be more aggressive. Finally, re-
search suggests that teacher-child relationship
quality declines after the transition to middle
school, perhaps because of the increased em-
phasis on normative grading and teacher con-
trol (Eccles & Roeser, 2009). Our results sug-
gest that relationship quality may already be
declining in the later elementary school years,
although the decrease is not dramatic.
First graders in our study also had the
strongest sense of peer community. Anderman
(2003) speculated that decreasing perceptions
of support from peers (a similar but not iden-
tical concept) may be due to the increasing
importance of social comparison in upper el-
ementary school (e.g., Dweck, 2002). More-
over, preadolescence is a time of decreased
self-competence for many youths (Jacobs,
Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002). It
may be that children's sense of community is
negatively affected when children frequently
compare themselves with classmates and view
peers as sources of competition rather than
support.
Consistent with previous research (Fur-
rer & Skinner, 2003; Gest et al., 2005), girls
perceived closer relationships with their teach-
ers than did boys. Whereas girls tend to be
more prosocial, boys are more likely to disrupt
class (Birch & Ladd, 1998), potentially con-
Relatedness in the Classroom
tributing to more negative interactions be-
tween teachers and boys. Although previous
evidence suggests that girls perceive a more
supportive peer community (Gest et al., 2005),
we found no gender differences; however, this
was qualified by the interaction effect ad-
dressed below.
Teachers' Emotional Support and
Children's Perceptions of Relatedness
It is worth noting that there was no ef-
fect of school assignment on either teacher
closeness or peer community. That is, the
teacher/classroom to which a child was as-
signed was more important than the school
assignment in determining the quality of chil-
dren's relationships. Nye, Konstantop-
oulus, and Hedges (2004) similarly found
teacher assignment to be more important than
school assignment for academic achievement
from kindergarten through third grade. It may
be that school membership is a stronger pre-
dictor of relatedness in middle school, when
children begin changing teachers for different
subjects. Taken together, these results vali-
dated our exploration of teaching practices
that tnay explain differences in children's per-
ceived relatedness. Indeed, our hypothesis that
children in classrooms with more emotionally
supportive teachers would perceive greater
levels of relatedness was generally supported.
Perceptions of teacher closeness.
Consistent with previous research (Buyse et
al, 2008; Danielsen et al., 2010), we found
significant between-classroom differences in
children's perceptions of teacher closeness.
Danielsen et al. describe this effect as a "sys-
tematic agreement" among classmates regard-
ing their relationships with their teachers.
Some teachers may easily develop relation-
ships with students (Hamre et al., 2008),
whereas other teachers struggle to develop
close relationships or do not see relationship
building as a goal.
As expected, children felt closer to
teachers who were aware of their students'
needs, effectively responded to students' so-
cial and academic problems, did not rigidly
adhere to their teaching plan when students
99
School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1
were interested in a related topic, granted stu-
dents autonomy, and provided leadership op-
portunities (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008).
It may be that teachers who see students as
individuals with distinct social and academic
needs are better able to support their students
and foster a warm relationship. Because the
TS/RSP composite score was absent of peer-
to-peer infiuences, we- essentially confirmed
that these teacher-child interactions, which
are intended to be indicators of the attach-
ment-like relationship between the teacher and
child, are indeed associated with children's
feelings of a close and secure relationship with
the teacher.
The weaker association between class-
room climate (PC/NC composite score) and
teacher closeness suggests that observed peer-
to-peer interactions may not be important in
the development of close teacher-student re-
lationships. However, post hoc analyses sug-
gest that a negative climate may have detri-
mental effects on teacher closeness, whereas a
positive climate does not have beneficial ef-
fects. A classroom with a negative climate is
characterized by fighting among students, sar-
castic language from the teacher, and harsh
discipline. Even students who typically have
warm relationships with teachers may struggle
to be close to a teacher in this toxic environ-
ment. In contrast, classrooms with a low pos-
itive climate simply have fewer positive inter-
actions (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008),
which may not prevent the formation of warm
relationships among children who already tend
to be close to their teachers.
Perceptions of peer community. Our
hypothesis that emotionally supportive inter-
actions between teachers and students would
be associated with children's sense of peer
community was partially confirmed. In the
main-effects model, children whose teachers
were sensitive to children's needs and pro-
vided opportunities for children's autonomy
reported a stronger sense of peer community.
This finding was consistent with a systems
perspective, which states that teacher-student
interactions are expected to infiuence the peer
relational system (Mikami et al, 2011). Chil-
100
dren who are consistently exposed to sensi-
tive, caring interactions between teachers and
students may model these qualities in their
own interactions with peers (Gest & Rodkin,
2011).
Moderation models, however, indicated
that although these sensitive and autonomy-
supportive teacher-child interactions were
important for sense of peer community among
boys, they were not important for girls. These
findings support our extension of the academic
risk model (Hamre & Pianta, 2005) in that
boys may have more to gain from having
emotionally supportive teachers, given that
boys generally perceive less support from their
classmates than do girls (Demaray & Malecki,
2002; Gest et al., 2005). Another possibility is
that emotionally supportive teachers minimize
negative experiences that disproportionately
affect boys, such as physical aggression (Zim-
mer-Gembeck, Geiger, & Crick, 2005). Gen-
der interactions should be interpreted with
caution, however, because they did not emerge
in the prediction of perceived teacher
closeness.
Characteristics of the Child and
Perceptions of Relatedness
We also explored whether aggressive-
disruptive or less-preferred children had a
greater risk of relational problems, as well as
whether teachers' emotional support protected
against negative outcomes. According to sys-
tems theories (e.g., Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
2006), the implications of a child's character-
istics may differ depending on the child's
context.
Perceived teacher closeness. Consis-
tent with our hypothesis and previous research
(e.g., Gest et al., 2005), children who were
aggressive or disruptive felt less close to their
teachers. Teachers' interactions with children
who have emotional and behavioral problems
tend to be discipline focused, with many fewer
interactions involving praise for academic or
social behavior (Sutheriand, 2000). It is diffi-
cult to imagine a close teacher-child relation-
ship developing when interactions tend to be
reprimands.

Contrary to our expectations, low social
preference was not associated with teacher
closeness. The peer relationship problems of
less-preferred children did not extend into the
teacher-child system. The lack of moderation
effects in the teacher closeness models sug-
gests that having an emotionally supportive
teacher is universally important for developing
a close teacher-child relationship, regardless
of a child's behavior or social preference.
Sense of peer community. Given that
rejected and aggressive-disruptive children
struggle with their relationships with peers
(Gest et al., 2005; Salmivalli & Isaacs, 2005),
we were surprised that the main-effects model
showed no differences in peer community
based on aggressive-disruptive behavior or
social preference. One possible explanation is
that children distinguished between their own
personal relationships and their objective per-
ceptions of the peer community. That is, ag-
gressive-disruptive and less-preferred chil-
dren may perceive their classrooms to be pos-
itive spaces despite their own interpersonal
problems. We did find a strong moderation
effect, in that children with high social pref-
erence did have a greater sense of peer com-
munity, but only in classrooms high in PC/NC.
Implications and Limitations of Study
Most school personnel will not be sur-
prised that teachers who have emotionally
supportive interactions with children have bet-
ter relationships with their students, but it is
notable that teacher-child interactions may
contribute to peer relationship quality as well.
These findings have many implications for
teachers, school psychologists, and principals,
who are increasingly interested in improving
teacher-child relationships and fostering a
sense of community—often with the goal of
promoting student motivation (Wentzel &
Wigfield, 2007).
First, many schools have adopted tiered
approaches to fostering academic achievement
and good behavior, including Response to In-
tervention (RTI) and Positive Behavioral In-
terventions and Support (PBIS; Sugai &
Horner, 2006). In these models, all students
Relatedness in the Classroom
receive evidence-based classroom practices
relating to either academic instruction or the
promotion of positive behavior (Tier 1); more
intensive services are provided for children
whose problems persist. Our results suggest
that professional development programs that
improve teachers' interactions with students
may have a place alongside other Tier 1 pro-
grams (Pianta, Mashburn, Downer, Hatnre, &
Justice, 2008). For example, the My Teaching-
Partner (MTP) professional development pro-
gram (Pianta, Mashburn et al., 2008) targets
the dimensions of teacher-child interaction
quality that are the foundation of the CLASS
measure. In addition to providing teachers
with access to online videos that illustrate
teachers succeeding in each dimension, the
MTP program provides coaches who observe
teachers' lessons and provide individualized
feedback throughout the year.
Until evidence-based programs such as
the MTP program are widely available, school
psychologists can become educated in the
CLASS framework and coach teachers using
the same observation-feedback cycles that are
critical to the success of the MTP program
(Pianta, Mashburn et al, 2008). For example,
the school psychologist might compliment the
teacher for performing specific actions that
contribute to a positive climate and, with the
teacher, brainstorm additional opportunities
for similar actions. Suggestions should be im-
mediately relevant to the teacher's current
classroom (Pianta, Mashburn et al, 2008); for
example, they may identify specific ways the
teacher can increase support for a particular
child. The Classroom Checkup program
(Reinke, Lewis-Palmer, & Merrell, 2008) pro-
vides similar opportunities for school psychol-
ogists to support teachers' positive interac-
tions with students. In this program, a school
psychologist completes a 20-minute observa-
tion that quantifies rates of specific behaviors
(e.g., rates of praise and reprimands). A
unique feature of the Classroom Checkup con-
sultation model is a motivational interviewing
framework in which the observer (psycholo-
gist) reviews the observation record with the
teacher and engages in a dialogue in which the
teacher identifies targeted areas for change.
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 1
A second implication is that teachers
should focus on building relationships with
aggressive-disruptive children. Making teach-
ers aware of their tendency to have negative
interactions with such children could help
teachers be more intentional in their interac-
tions (Sutherland, 2000), especially if teachers
are informed of the importance of close rela-
tionships for aggressive children's academic
success (Baker, 2006). Upper elementary
school teachers might need special assistance
because they may view relationship building
as less important than preparing students
for standardized tests and middle school.
School psychologists should also recognize
that aggressive children may not be able to
develop close relationships with the primary
disciplinarian (i.e., the teacher). Psychologists
might connect aggressive children with other
adults in the school to ensure that the children
benefit from a relationship with a nonparental
adult.
Our study has several limitations. First,
this study was not designed to determine
whether there are causal relationships among
variables. All of our measures were collected
during the second half of the school year, after
classroom relationships had been established.
It could be that teachers observed to provide
low emotional support at the time of observa-
tion were attempting to work with an excep-
tionally difficult group of students. Indeed, the
association between teacher-child interac-
tions and children's outcomes is likely recip-
rocal (Gest & Rodkin, 2011). Longitudinal
studies and cluster randomized trials are
needed to determine whether targeting teach-
ers' emotionally supportive interactions is an
effective strategy for improving students'
sense of relatedness. The field is headed in just
this direction; a recent ttial of a professional
development program grounded in the CLASS
framework showed that teachers in the inter-
vention condition had more emotionally sup-
portive interactions with their students (Pianta,
Mashburn et al., 2008), as well as higher-
quality peer interactions in their classrooms,
as compared with control classrooms (Mikami
et al., 2011).
102
Second, the ICCs for CLASS dimension
scores were fair to good, but not excellent
(Fleiss, 1986). Limited reliability is a greater
concern when there are null findings, as poor
reliability can mask true associations. Instead,
we found significant associations between
composite CLASS scales and both teacher-
child closeness and sense of peer communi-
ty—in fact, larger effect sizes or more statis-
tically significant effects may emerge if teach-
er-child interactions can be measured more
reliably.
Third, we cannot be sure whether the
higher scores for teacher closeness and peer
community among first graders are solely due
to a greater sense of relatedness among
younger children. The interview format used
for first graders may have increased social
desirability compared with third and fifth
graders. Furthermore, first graders do not have
the same vocabulary and linguistic abilities of
older students, which may have led first grad-
ers to respond in the affirmative when they did
not understand the question. Still, we observed
a gradual decline in perceived relatedness after
first grade rather than a precipitous drop, sug-
gesting that the grade effects may be attributed
to true changes in relationship quality rather
than response format.
An additional limitation is that we do
not know whether teachers' emotionally sup-
portive interactions are associated with chil-
dren's perceptions of specific forms of support
from teachers and peers, such as academic
support or clear expectations for behavior
(e.g., Wentzel et al., 2010); further exploration
of differential effects on multiple dimensions
of social support is desirable. Finally, our
study highlighted important between-class-
room differences in children's sense of relat-
edness and the potential impact of teachers'
emotionally supportive interactions. Within a
single classroom, however, teachers likely had
more supportive interactions with some stu-
dents than with others; as such, our study does
not provide a full accounting of the role of
warm, autonomy-supportive, and sensitive in-
teractions for individual students.

Conclusion
This study underscores the importance
of considering interdependencies among the
different relational systems in the classroom.
Several research groups have bridged the his-
torical gap between studies of teacher-student
relationships and studies of peer relationships,
showing the unique roles of each relational
system in student development. Our results
suggest that it may be productive to examine
direct connections between these two rela-
tional systems.
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Date Received: May 31, 2012
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Associate Editor; Shannon Suido
 Relatedness in the Classroom

Rebecca A. Madill, MS, is currently a doctoral candidate in the Departrnent of Human

Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research
focuses on identifying and measuring teaching strategies that influence the social and
cognitive development of children during early and middle childhood.

Scott D. Gest, PhD, is an associate professor of human development and family studies
at The Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on developmental processes
linking children's school-based peer experiences with their academic competence and
problem behaviors from middle childhood through adolescence and explores how teach-
ing practices and intervention efforts may modify these peer experiences in ways that
support better individual adjustment.

Philip C. Rodkin, PhD, is an associate professor of educational psychology at the

University of Illinois. The goal of his work is to understand the socialization and
development of aggressive behavior, particularly the aggressive behavior of children who
are well accepted by their peers, and eventually to devise interventions that use children's
existing social networks to reduce problem behavior in schools.

105
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