Prior literature has suggested that teachers who are confident in their abilities to teach, assess, and manage classroom behavior may be more likely to engage in practices that lead to supportive and secure relationships with students. The current study investigated the trajectories of teacher-student relationships, examining the extent that teacher self-efficacy beliefs predicted ratings of conflict and closeness for 885 students from second to sixth grade. The trends of teacher-student closeness and conflict were modeled using a parallel curve of factors approach, controlling for student demographics and teacher-student racial and gender alignment prior to examining the extent that teacher self-efficacy beliefs influenced closeness and conflict across grades. Results from the parallel trajectories suggested that teacher-student conflict was stable from second to sixth grade, whereas teacher-student closeness demonstrated a declining curvilinear trend. The relationship between teacher-student conflict and closeness suggests that students with relatively high levels of conflict in second grade were likely to exhibit sharper declines in closeness over time. Across grades, teachers rated closer and less conflictual relationships with females but after controlling for gender and race (β = 0.083–0.328 for closeness; β = −0.118 to −0.238 for conflict), teacher-student racial and gender alignment associations with teacher-student relationship quality were less consistent. Teachers who reported higher self-efficacy beliefs were more likely to report higher ratings of closeness and lower ratings of conflict with students across all grades (β = 0.195–0.280 for closeness; β = −0.053 to −0.097 for conflict). These findings contribute to the literature regarding the role of teacher self-efficacy in teacher-student relationships. We discuss how teacher self-efficacy beliefs can be developed and leveraged to improve relationship quality in the classroom from a social cognitive perspective.

先前的文献表明，对自己的教学、评估和管理课堂行为的能力充满信心的教师可能更有可能参与能够与学生建立支持性和安全关系的实践。当前的研究调查了师生关系的轨迹，检查了教师自我效能信念对 885 名二至六年级学生的冲突和亲密程度的预测程度。在检查教师自我效能信念影响跨年级亲密和冲突的程度之前，使用平行因素曲线方法对师生亲密和冲突的趋势进行建模，控制学生人口统计和师生种族和性别对齐。平行轨迹的结果表明，师生冲突从二年级到六年级是稳定的，而师生亲密度则呈曲线下降趋势。师生冲突与亲密度之间的关系表明，二年级冲突程度相对较高的学生随着时间的推移，亲密度可能会急剧下降。在各个年级中，教师评价与女性的关系更密切、冲突更少，但在控制性别和种族后（亲密度为 β = 0.083–0.328；冲突为 β = -0.118 至 -0.238）、师生种族和性别对齐关联与教师-学生关系质量不太一致。报告较高自我效能信念的教师更有可能报告较高的亲密度评分和较低的与所有年级学生发生冲突的评分（亲密度为 β = 0.195–0.280；冲突为 β = -0.053 至 -0.097）。这些发现有助于有关教师自我效能感在师生关系中的作用的文献。我们从社会认知的角度讨论了如何发展和利用教师的自我效能信念来改善课堂中的关系质量。