Teacher's emotion regulation impact in teacher-student relationship

Abstract
It is commonly known that student-teacher relationship quality is crucial for children's academic and social development. Nevertheless, it is believed that this relationship is affected by teacher’s emotions and their ability for emotion regulation, for example their effective skills to manage their emotions in their class. Therefore, to confirm this opinion, the present survey uses the teachers' opinions to investigate the correlations of the most important and common emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) (Gross & John, 2003) with closeness and conflict between a teacher and a student, which are the factors that determine the quality of their relationship (Pianta, 2001). In this survey, the “Emotion Regulation Questionnaire” (Gross & John, 2003) and the “Student - Teacher Relationship Questionnaire – short form” (Pianta, 2001) were used. 92 primary school teachers completed these questionnaires for 4 different type of children that they chose: the one with the best and the one with the worst academic achievements, the one with the best and the one with the worst teacher-student relationship. Findings include: the teachers’ use and preference of emotion regulation strategies, the level of closeness and conflict they feel with each type of children, how these differ according to the student’s and the teacher’s gender and how these strategies correlate with closeness and conflict in each type of children. An important finding of this survey is that teachers tend to use more the cognitive reappraisal strategy, which was related to closeness in most types of students. This shows the importance and the effectiveness of teachers’ cognitive reappraisal. The present study is important, because it can broaden teachers’ horizons and knowledge about the effective use of emotion regulation in their class, as a way to improve their relationships with their students and therefore their social and academic development.
Article Details
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Striligka, M., & Manolitsis, G. (2025). Teacher’s emotion regulation impact in teacher-student relationship. Preschool and Primary Education, 13(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.12681/ppej.38476
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