Fair Teachers, Fair Police? Assessing the Pathways between Perceptions of Teacher and Police Authority in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Existing research has shown that the quality of the relationship between teacher and child is associated with more positive perceptions of school authorities. There has been relatively less attention to the processes that connect attitudes towards different sources of authority, such as between teachers and police. The current study uses a counterfactual approach to estimate the direct and indirect effects of teacher–child relationships on children’s later perceptions of police legitimacy. Using data from a longitudinal study of youth in Zurich, Switzerland, this study applies non-bipartite propensity score matching to identify matched pairs (n = 232 pairs, 55% male) of children with better versus worse relationships with their teacher at age 11 following a teacher change. Matched pairs were then compared on potential mediators (moral norms about deviant behavior and low self-control) at age 13 and perceptions of police legitimacy at age 15. The results demonstrate the importance of the quality of the relationships between students and teachers in shaping young people’s interpersonal characteristics as well as perceptions of the world around them. Namely, if young people feel that they are being treated fairly by their teachers, they are more likely to distinguish behaviors that are right or wrong (moral norms) and control their actions (self-control). Moreover, as a result they are also more likely to perceive authorities such as police as legitimate agents that facilitate societal order.

The role of student–teacher relationships in the association between negative parenting practices and emotion dynamics – Combining longitudinal and ecological momentary assessment data

“…The finding that relationships with teachers in adolescence significantly predicted NA and EL in young adulthood is in accordance with the increasing literature highlighting the potential for student-teacher relationships to exert an effect on adolescents' and young adults' psychological outcomes (e.g., Ansari et al, 2020;Nivette et al, 2022;Obsuth et al, 2023). It supports the results of recent research suggesting that a positive relationship with a teacher can lead to lower levels of overall emotion dysregulation for students, while conversely showing that worse student-teacher relationships can have a detrimental impact on students' emotion regulation skills; thus, positioning the relationship as both a significant risk and protective factor in young people's developmental trajectories (e.g, DeNeve et al, 2023).…”

Association between ultra-processed dietary pattern and bullying: the role of deviant behaviors

“…In schools, the literature indicates that teachers may influence the way students interact with each other ( 68 ), guiding and shaping their behavior through classroom pedagogical strategies ( 69 – 71 ) such as circle time (or “group thinking time”). In this activity, students sit in a circle and the teacher encourages them to explore issues relevant to the class (e.g., respecting the rights of others, bullying) ( 66 ).…”

A Review of the Evolution of Preschool Teacher Authority

“…It has been said that the authority of preschool teachers is the continuation of the traditional teacher power, which reflects the excessive control of teachers over children and should be dispelled as soon as possible. It is also said that the authority of preschool teachers needs to be rationally reconstructed in the modern context [1] [2]. Therefore, the authority of teachers has also undergone the dismantling of postmodernism and then been projected into the field of preschool education and repeatedly reshaped.…”