Teacher–student relationships, psychological need satisfaction, and happiness among diverse students

Teacher–student relationships have been linked to autonomous motivation and achievement. However, relatively little is known about whether satisfying students’ psychological needs mediates the association between teacher–student relationships and student happiness. Furthermore, this relationship nee...

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Published inPsychology in the schools Vol. 56; no. 5; pp. 856 - 870
Main Authors Froiland, John Mark, Worrell, Frank C., Oh, Hyejeong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley-Blackwell 01.05.2019
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
African American Students
African Americans
Age Differences
Asian American people
Asian American Students
Autonomy
Competence
Correlation
Ethnic Groups
Happiness
Hispanic American Students
Instructional Program Divisions
Motivation
Personal Autonomy
Psychological Needs
Psychological Patterns
Race
Relatedness
self‐determination theory
Structural Equation Models
Student Attitudes
Student Satisfaction
Student teacher relationship
Students
Teacher Student Relationship
teacher–student relationships
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Summary:Teacher–student relationships have been linked to autonomous motivation and achievement. However, relatively little is known about whether satisfying students’ psychological needs mediates the association between teacher–student relationships and student happiness. Furthermore, this relationship needs to be examined in samples of students from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. In this structural equation modeling study (N = 1,961), we found that teacher–student relationships were positively and moderately associated with the satisfaction of psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Satisfying psychological needs, in turn, was moderately positively associated with happiness. These findings held across African American, Asian American, and Latinx subsamples. For the overall sample, students in higher grade levels perceived that their psychological needs were met to a lesser degree than students in earlier grades. However, only the Latinx subsample replicated this effect. Teacher–student relationships may promote happiness via meeting psychological needs.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0033-3085
1520-6807
DOI:10.1002/pits.22245