Helma M Y Koomen

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• Professor
• Professor Emeritus at University of Amsterdam

In this meta-analysis and narrative review, we investigated whether personality traits of children and adults (i.e., parents and teachers), as well as personality similarity, were associated with the affective quality of dyadic adult–child relationships. We conducted a systematic literature search following PRISMA guidelines. By performing a quanti...

Since adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) seem highly prevalent for students with EBD, it isimportant to understand how ACEs are related to their severe internalizing problems and externa-lizing problems. In this study, we assessed the mediating role of post traumatic stress (PTSD)symptoms and executive functioning (EF) in the potential associatio...

Identifying protective factors against increased work pressure is crucial to prevent teachers from experiencing burnout complaints. Two studies with 363 primary (Study 1; 95.0% female) and 419 secondary school teachers (Study 2; 80.4% female) tested whether dyad-level principal–teacher relationships (closeness, conflict) moderated or mediated the a...

This study evaluated LLInC (Leerkracht–Leerling Interactie Coaching in Dutch, or Teacher Student Interaction Coaching), an intervention targeted at teachers’ mental representations to improve dyadic teacher–child relationship quality. Four teachers and eight children from Dutch elementary schools participated in this single case study. Teachers the...

Introduction Meta-analytical findings indicate that high-quality dyadic teacher-student relationships (TSRs) can act as social protective factors against the development or persistence of emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) by fostering students’ social-emotional and cognitive learning. However, previous research primarily focused on samples o...

Teachers’ emotions connect significantly to well-being, classroom practices and student relationships, addressing a gap in research primarily focused on English-speaking contexts. This study aims to bridge this gap by validating a Spanish version of the Teacher Emotions Scale (TES) among Chilean educators and investigating its relationship with wel...

It is widely acknowledged that high-quality teacher-student relationships contribute to both student and teacher well-being. However, research shows that building these relationships can be challenging for teachers and signals opportunities for teacher education to better prepare them for building high-quality teacher-student relationships. As teac...

Although current research indicates that sustainable dyadic teacher-student relationships (TSRs) can be socially protective against mental health problems, these findings refer primarily to teacher-perceived TSRs in regular schools (cf. Van Bergen et al., 2020). Therefore, this cross-sectional study examined how teacher-and student-perceived TSRs,...

Betrokkenheid en verbondenheid van professionele opvoeders en hulpverleners met kinderen, jongeren en volwassenen in een afhankelijkheidspositie is van evident belang. Maar behalve een warm hart vraagt de omgang met relaties ook professionele kennis en vaardigheden, om een solide fundament te kunnen leggen voor de verdere beroepsuitoefening. Dit is...

The present study investigated how young children's (5‐to‐8‐year‐olds) social inhibition and solitary behavior were associated with teacher–child relationship quality and whether these associations differed across the Netherlands and China. The Dutch sample included 35 teachers and 201 children (49% girls). The Chinese sample consisted of 19 teache...

Research Findings: The present study focused on the affective quality of dyadic relationships between teachers and young children in China and the Netherlands. We examined whether there were cross-cultural differences in teachers’ and children’s relationship perceptions, as well as the degree to which teachers and children agreed on their relations...

Intervention is considered the ultimate goal of the diagnostic process. However, when diagnostic assessment is largely focused on student (mal)adjustment and when the role and perspective of the teacher is not systematically evaluated, the assessment may fail to generate useful recommendations for intervention or teacher consultation. Based on a de...

This study focused on (1) whether dimensions of relationship quality (i.e., closeness, conflict, and dependency) jointly form distinct relationship patterns in a normative sample of upper elementary schoolers (N = 1078), (2) the extent to which patterns observed in the normative sample could be found in a problematic sample (N = 241) consisting of...

Attachment theory has played a prominent role in the study of affective relationships between teachers and individual children in school settings. This review synthesizes three decades of attachment-based research on teacher-child relationships roughly covering the period between 1992 and 2022. Five key themes were discussed: (1) conceptualization...

Student-teacher relationship scale Confirmatory factor analysis Dependency Collectivistic culture Elementary school A B S T R A C T The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) is widely used to evaluate the quality of student-teacher relationships in terms of Closeness, Conflict, and Dependency. The main purpose of this study was to examine facto...

Background Research on dyadic teacher–child relationships has grown rapidly. However, a review of relevant theories and its implications for assessment and intervention has been lacking so far. Methods A selective review of theories, empirical evidence and interventions was conducted. Results and Conclusions Different theories highlight distinct...

This diary study examined the role of teachers' relationship perceptions (closeness, conflict, dependency) in shaping emotional labor strategies (genuine expression, surface acting) during daily events with individual students. Thirty-seven primary school teachers reported on their emotional labor in 563 events with 77 students, in which at least o...

The present study evaluated whether LLInC (Leerkracht-Leerling Interactie Coaching in Dutch, or Teacher-Student Interaction Coaching), a teacher-based coaching-intervention, yielded improvements in dyadic affective teacher-child relationships in elementary school (Grades 2-6). Based on attachment theory, LLInC aims to foster more flexible and diffe...

The present study examined differences in student–teacher relationship quality and engagement with schoolwork between boys from regular education and boys from special education for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We also investigated whether the strength of associations between student–teacher relationship quality and engagement dif...

Students' disruptive behavior during classroom events can elicit strong emotions in teachers and impact teachers' occupational wellbeing. This research was the first to test the proposition that teachers' emotional responses depend not solely on the specific classroom events themselves, but also on the perceived history of disruptive behavior of th...

The present study examined reciprocal influences between student–teacher relationship quality and students’ externalizing and internalizing behaviors in secondary education. Our sample included 1,219 secondary school students (49.1% boys; Mage = 13.53, SD = 1.77) from seventh, eighth, tenth, and eleventh grade. Students reported about their externa...

A meta-analytic approach was used to examine associations between student-teacher dependency and students’ school adjustment (engagement, achievement, externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior, and prosocial behavior). Furthermore, we investigated whether associations between dependency and school adjustment were moderated by student and teach...

Within an attachment perspective on teacher-child relationships three affective relationship dimensions have been identified: closeness, conflict, and dependency. Whereas a lot of research is available on relational closeness and conflict, far less is known about the construct of dependency. In this paper, we aim to further the conceptualization of...

This study explored unique associations of student disabilities (ADHD, ASD, dyslexia) with teacher-, student- and peer-perceptions of student–teacher relationship quality. Sixty-three teachers, 510 students, and classmates from 24 Dutch mainstream elementary schools completed questionnaires about the student–teacher relationship quality. Teachers i...

This short-term longitudinal study explored the unique role of proximal classroom factors (teachers’ student-specific self-efficacy, autonomy-supportive behaviors, and student-teacher relationships) in students’ emotional and behavioral engagement, and the moderating role of grade level. Participants were 472 students and 63 teachers (grades 4–6)....

The present study examined how different externalizing child behaviors (i.e., hyperactivity, conduct problems) were uniquely associated with teachers' mental representations of relationships with individual children. Participants were 61 teacher–child dyads from typical Dutch elementary schools. Using a two-wave design, teachers first reported abou...

The affective quality of teacher-student relationships (TSRs) has mostly been studied in Western contexts and little is known how findings generalize to Eastern contexts. Therefore, the present study examined measurement invariance, mean differences, and agreement in teachers' and students' perceptions of relationship quality between the Netherland...

The present study examined whether secondary school students share different relationships with different teachers (homeroom teacher, teacher of easiest subject, teacher of hardest subject). Furthermore, we investigated whether students’ engagement with the subjects of these teachers and associations between relationship quality and engagement vari...

Leerkrachten ervaren de meest intense emoties in alledaagse situaties met hun leerlingen (Hargreaves, 2000). Een gebeurtenis met een leerling staat echter niet op zichzelf, maar is er een in een reeks van gebeurtenissen. En de ene leerling is de andere niet: sommige leerlingen roepen veel meer negatieve emoties op dan andere. Wat doet het met de em...

To gain insight in relevant classroom events for teachers, this study asked 218 elementary school teachers to describe the most relevant event of the past workday, involving an individual student. Male students and students with relatively high externalizing, antisocial behavioral attributes were overrepresented in both positively and negatively va...

Presentation at symposium EARLI Conference 2019, Aachen (Germany)

In this study, cross-lagged longitudinal modeling was used to examine associations between teacher-child relationship quality and children's behavioral adjustment in a sample of sixth grade ethnic minority children. In comparison to previous cross-lagged studies, children were older and cross-informant models were used. Both teachers (N = 12) and c...

Despite the common idea that teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) is associated with achievement, research findings in this area are ambiguous at best. In the current study, we took a multilevel perspective on the relationship between TSE and students’ academic achievement and evaluated how different levels of conceptualization and measurement of TSE may...

EARLI SIG 11 Conference 2018 Kristiansand, Norway

The present study used a person-centered approach to identify teacher-student relationship trajectories from kindergarten to sixth grade in a Dutch sample (N = 1300). Teachers reported about relationships with individual students (closeness, conflict, and dependency) in kindergarten, grade 3, and grade 6, and about externalizing behaviors in kinder...

Deze studie onderzocht de self-efficacy van basisschoolleerkrachten (LSE) binnen verschillende domeinen van lesgeven en in relatie tot individuele leerlingen met verschillende soorten gedrag. Deelnemers waren 526 leerlingen en 69 leerkrachten uit groep 5 tot en met 8 van het basisonderwijs. Zowel LSE als leerlinggedrag werd gerapporteerd door leerk...

The present study examined how teachers' interpersonal behaviors (control, affiliation) and complementarity tendencies (i.e., return low control with high control and high affiliation with similar affiliation) were related to children's task behaviors (engagement, performance). Furthermore, we investigated whether the strength of these associations...

The present study took a meta-analytic approach to investigate whether students' engagement acts as a mediator in the association between affective teacher-student relationships and students' achievement. Furthermore, we examined whether results differed for primary and secondary school and whether similar results were found in a longitudinal subsa...

Data gathered from a longitudinal study within regular upper elementary schools were used to evaluate a theoretical model within which teachers’ perceptions of conflict and closeness in the student–teacher relationship were considered as the intermediary mechanisms by which individual students’ externalizing behavior generates changes in teachers’...

The present study aimed to advance insight into similarities and dissimilarities between teachers' and students' views of closeness and conflict in their dyadic relationship, and personal teacher and student attributes that contribute to these views. In total, 464 students (50.2% girls) and 62 teachers (67.5% females) from grades 4 to 6 participate...

SRCD Conference 2017 Austin, Texas

Among the many beliefs teachers might hold, few are as important for their classroom behaviors as their sense of self-efficacy (TSE). Theorists have indicated that TSE, or teachers’ judgments of capability, may determine the type of activities teachers choose to get into, the effort they expend in such activities, and the extent to which they perse...

The affective nature of student–teacher relationships has been acknowledged to play a role in students’ social-emotional adjustment in elementary school. Research indicates that students who are exposed to relationships marked by high levels of positive affect (closeness) tend to develop better social skills and are show less signs of social withdr...

Research Findings: The present study examined associations between children’s classroom interactions and teachers’ perceptions of teacher–child relationships during 1 year of preschool. Teachers (n = 223) reported their perceptions of closeness and conflict in their teacher–child relationships in the fall and spring. Children’s (n = 895) positive c...

ISPA Conference 2016 Amsterdam

Disruptive students bring behaviors to class that challenge teachers’ ability to complete their professional duties. Cross-sectional studies show that disrup-tive behaviors take time away from instruction, hamper teachers’ efforts to sustain a positive learning climate, and consequently weaken teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs (TSE) to effectively de...

Previous research showed that a values-affirmation intervention can help reduce the achievement gap between African American and European American students in the US. In the present study, it was examined if these results would generalize to ethnic minority students in a country outside the US, namely the Netherlands, where there is also an achieve...

This study explored inter- and intra-individual differences in teachers' self-efficacy (TSE) by adapting Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy's (2001) Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) to the domain- and student-specific level. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the factor structure underlying this adapted instrument, a...

The present study examined teachers’ domain-specific self-efficacy (TSE) in relation to individual students with a variety of social–emotional behaviors in class. Using a sample of 526 third- to sixth-grade students and 69 teachers, multilevel modeling was conducted to examine students’ externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors as predi...

This study integrates 40 years of teacher self-efficacy (TSE) research to explore the consequences of TSE for the quality of classroom processes, students’ academic adjustment, and teachers’ psychological well-being. Via a criteria-based review approach, 165 eligible articles were included for analysis. Results suggest that TSE shows positive links...

Background The constructs of closeness, conflict, and dependency, which are derived from attachment theory, are widely used to qualify teachers’ perceptions of relationships with individual children.AimsOur main aim was to reveal whether similar and reliable dimensions could be identified in middle childhood with a newly developed student measure S...

The growing popularity of teacher self-efficacy (TSE) studies has induced a myriad of studies meriting the measurement of TSE and its underlying dimensions. Most studies treat TSE as a relatively stable teacher characteristic that fluctuates between teachers and various teaching domains. However, TSE can also be perceived as a mutable state within...

In this study, we aimed to examine the associations between child-perceived teacher–child relationships, children's appraisals of interactions with their teacher, and internalizing problems. Five hundred third- to sixth-graders reported about their experiences of closeness, conflict, and negative expectations in the relationship with their teacher....

Samenvatting Het Leerkracht Relatie Interview is een semi-gestructureerd interview dat relatieproblemen tussen individuele leerlingen en hun leerkrachten op een gedetailleerde wijze in kaart brengt. Aan de hand van een casus van een leerkracht en een leerling met een diagnose Autisme Spectrum Stoornis wordt uitgelegd hoe het Leerkracht Relatie Inte...

This longitudinal study examined developmental links between closeness in teacher-child relationships and children's receptive language ability from the end of the preschool years into the early elementary years, while controlling for changes in peer interaction quality and child behavioral functioning. The sample included children and their parent...

In deze studie werd onderzocht of het interactieve gedrag van leerkrachten en kinderen verband houdt met de mate van externaliserend en internaliserend gedrag van kinderen. In totaal werden 48 leerkrachten en 179 kleuters geobserveerd in een kleine groepssetting in het klaslokaal. Onafhankelijke beoordelaars scoorden het interactieve gedrag van lee...

This study investigated the effects of treatment fidelity, both quantitative (training time and lesson/program completion) and qualitative (level matching procedures, tutor support, and children's task orientation) on the outcome of an individualized computer-supported reading intervention provided by non-professional tutors (i.e., parents and volu...

This narrative literature review explores the role of unfavorable teacher-student relationships in the association between student problem behavior and teacher stress. Based on attachment theory, teachers are assumed to develop mental representations (internal working models) of their relationships with individual students, which are considered to...

A meta-analytic approach was used to investigate the associations between affective teacher-student relationships and students' learning behaviors for primary and secondary schools separately Results were based on 63 primary school (24,385 students) and 31 secondary school studies (85,197 students). Separate analyses were conducted for positive asp...

Verschillen tussen jongens en meisjes zijn hot bij zowel beleidsmakers, wetenschappers, hulpverleners als opvoeders. Berichten over teleurstellende schoolprestaties en opleidingsniveaus van jongens halen regelmatig de landelijke pers. Daarnaast zijn we gewend geraakt aan berichten over gedragsproblemen bij jongens en hun oververtegenwoordiging in d...

This study tested a theoretical model considering students' personality traits as predictors of student-teacher relationship quality (closeness, conflict, and dependency), the effects of student-teacher relationship quality on students' math and reading achievement, and the mediating role of students' motivational beliefs on the association between...

In a short-term longitudinal intervention study, it was investigated whether a short teacher training in interpersonal theory and the complementarity principle could be used to break negative interaction cycles between teachers and socially inhibited kindergartners. Sixty-five children and their 35 regular teachers were observed in a dyadic task se...

This study analyzed children's generalized perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior in terms of two dimensions, control and affiliation, referring to the degree of teacher leadership/management and teacher friendliness/cooperation in the classroom, respectively. An adapted version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction was developed for c...

The present study investigated whether the complementarity principle (mutual interactive behaviors are opposite on control and similar on affiliation) applies to teacher-child interactions within the kindergarten classroom. Furthermore, it was examined whether interactive behaviors and complementarity depended on children's externalizing and intern...

Cheung and Chan (2005) proposed a two-stage method to conduct meta-analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM). MASEM refers to the technique of fitting structural equation models to pooled correlation or covariance matrices from several studies. Unfortunately, researchers do not always report all correlations between the variables of interest....

Although research consistently points to poorer teacher-student relationships for boys than girls, there are no studies that take into account the effects of teacher gender and control for possible measurement non-invariance across student and teacher gender. This study addressed both issues. The sample included 649 primary school teachers (182 men...

This special issue aims to prompt reflection on the mutual contribution of attachment theory, on the one hand, and teacher-child relationship research, on the other, by bringing together conceptual and empirical contributions taking an attachment perspective on teacher-child relationships. In this introductory article, we contend that the teacher c...

A relationship-focused reflection program (RFRP) was developed that targeted teachers' mental representations of relationships with specific children. Relative effectiveness was examined in a randomized comparative trial with repeated measures. Thirty-two teachers were assigned to the RFRP or the comparison intervention directly aimed at teacher be...

The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) is widely used to examine teachers' relationships with young students in terms of closeness, conflict, and dependency. This study aimed to verify the dimensional structure of the STRS with confirmatory factor analysis, test its measurement invariance across child gender and age, improve its measurement...

Among 36 ethnic-Dutch school teachers in the Netherlands, the present study examined the role of ethnic incongruence in perceived student-teacher relationship quality. Teachers rated their relationships with 59 Turkish-Dutch, 62 Moroccan-Dutch, and 109 ethnic-Dutch students attending grades 4 through 6 (M(age)=10.81 years, SD=1.05). On average, rel...

Improvements in client-caregiver relationships may lead to improvements in the quality of life of clients with intellectual disabilities (ID). For this reason, interventions aimed at influencing these relationships are important. To gain insight into the nature and intention of these relationships in the ID population, suitable measurement instrume...

Most studies regarding the role of teacher-child relationships for children's early school adjustment use only teacher ratings of relationship quality. The current study examines (a) the agreement between teacher and observer ratings, (b) whether similar patterns of relations with behavioral engagement are obtained across informants, and (c) which...

Previous research has shown that the quality of teacher-child relationships influences a range of children’s social and academic outcomes, such as classroom participation (e.g., Ladd, Birch,& Buhs, 1999), academic performance (e.g., Hamre& Pianta, 2001), and peer acceptance (e.g., Henricsson& Rydell, 2006).

Researchers increasingly consider teacher-child relationships in kindergarten as an important indicator of school readiness that forecasts children’s future school success (Ladd, Herald, & Kochel, 2006; Mashburn & Pianta, 2006). Especially teacher-child conflict contributes to future socioemotional difficulties and academic underachievement (Hamre...

A meta-analytic approach was used to investigate the associations between affective qualities of teacher–student relationships (TSRs) and students’ school engagement and achievement. Results were based on 99 studies, including students from preschool to high school. Separate analyses were conducted for positive relationships and engagement (k = 61...

The distinctiveness of physical aggression from other antisocial behavior is widely accepted but little research has explicitly focused on young children to empirically test this assumption. A Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix (MTMM) approach was employed to confirm the distinctiveness of physical aggression from nonaggressive antisocial behavior in ea...

Many studies have examined the importance of teacher–student relationships for the development of children. Much less is known, however, about how these relationships impact the professional and personal lives of teachers. This review considers the importance of teacher–student relationships for the wellbeing of teachers starting from the Transacti...

The present study used an interpersonal theoretical perspective to examine the interactions between Dutch teachers and kindergartners. Interpersonal theory provides explanations for dyadic interaction behaviors by stating that complementary behaviors (dissimilar in terms of control, and similar in terms of affiliation) elicit and sustain each other...

The psychometric qualities of two instruments that measure children's perceptions of teacher–child relationships were evaluated in a sample of kindergartners (N = 150): The Young Children's Appraisals of Teacher Support (Y-CATS) and the Kindergartner–Teacher Interaction Computer (KLIC) test. On the Y-CATS, children judged propositions on a dichotom...

De leraar-leerlingrelatie speelt een belangrijke rol in de schoolse aanpassing van kinderen. In het diagnostische proces is dan ook behoefte aan instrumenten ter objectivering van de kwaliteit van leraar-leerlingrelaties. Het Leerkracht Relatie Interview (lri) verschaft inzicht in de opvattingen en gevoelens van leerkrachten betreffende hun relatie...

A confirmatory factor analytic study was conducted to obtain evidence for physical aggression as a distinct construct of nonaggressive antisocial behavior in young children. Second, the authors investigated factorial invariance across gender. Teachers completed the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ) for two independent samples of kindergartners...

De leraar-leerlingrelatie speelt een belangrijke rol in de schoolse aanpassing van kinderen. In het diagnostische proces is dan ook behoefte aan instrumenten ter objectivering van de kwaliteit van leraar-leerlingrelaties. Het Leerkracht Relatie Interview (lri) verschaft inzicht in de opvattingen en gevoelens van leerkrachten betreffende hun relatie...

This study examined teachers’ reports of early teacher–child relationships by focusing on their assessments of the severity and the causes of children's social behaviors. Eighty-one kindergarten teachers filled out questionnaires about socially inhibited, hyperactive, and average children (n=237) selected from their own classes. Multilevel analyses...

The goal of the present study was to obtain evidence for the validity of the Teacher Relationship Interview by exploring associations with a well-validated measure of teacher-child relationship quality, the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (Closeness, Conflict, and Dependency), and examining differences between teachers' narratives about the rela...

This study explored the link between teachers' reports of their relationships with individual kindergartners and their self-reported pedagogical practices toward these children. Two samples of kindergarten teachers were examined. They were questioned about, respectively, 117 and 167 children selected as socially inhibited, hyperactive, or average r...

This study examined the emotional security of kindergarten children in dyadic task-related interactions with their teachers. In particular, it examined the interrelations between security, task behaviours (persistence and independence), social inhibition, and teachers’ support. Participants were 79 kindergartners (mean age = 69.7 months) and their...