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.

现有研究表明，教师和儿童之间关系的质量与对学校当局更积极的看法有关。相对较少关注将不同权威来源的态度联系起来的过程，例如教师和警察之间的关系。目前的研究使用反事实方法来估计师生关系对儿童后来对警察合法性的看法的直接和间接影响。使用来自瑞士苏黎世青年纵向研究的数据，本研究应用非二分倾向评分匹配来识别匹配对（n = 232 对，55% 为男性）的孩子在 11 岁时与老师的关系在更换老师后有好有坏。然后，配对配对在 13 岁时的潜在调解人（关于越轨行为和低自我控制的道德规范）和 15 岁时对警察合法性的看法进行比较。结果表明，学生和教师之间的关系质量对于塑造年轻人的重要性人们的人际关系特征以及对周围世界的看法。也就是说，如果年轻人觉得自己受到了老师的公平对待，他们更有可能区分行为对错（道德规范）并控制自己的行为（自我控制）。而且，