Testing associations between young children's relationships with mothers and teachers.

Abstract

The current study was conducted to examine associations between children's maternal attachments and the quality of their relationships with teachers at 3 time points. The quality of the teacher-child relationship at 54 months, kindergarten, and 1st grade was regressed on blocks of predictors that included maternal attachment at 15, 24, and 36 months. There were 4 main findings. First, insecure/other attachment was a negative predictor of the quality of the teacher-child relationship at all 3 time points. Second, avoidant attachment was a negative predictor of the quality of the teacher-child relationship at 54 months. Third, in kindergarten, avoidant children in more hours of school had better quality relationships with teachers than avoidant children in fewer hours. Fourth, there were associations among the quality of the teacher-child relationship at all 3 time points. Implications for practice are discussed.