Spot the difference A cross-cultural comparison of affective teacher-student relationship quality and associations with shyness between the Netherlands and China

The affective quality of teacher-student relationships has been found to be important for students’ school adjustment. Although cultural values may affect the formation of teacher-student relationships, cross-cultural studies on this topic were scarce. Furthermore, cultural values may also influence how student characteristics (e.g., shyness) associate with teacher-student relationship quality. This dissertation investigated whether (1) the quality of teacher-student relationships and (2) the link between shyness and relationship quality differed across the Netherlands (a Western, individualistic country) and China (an Eastern, collectivistic country). This was examined in both upper elementary school and in early school years.
In upper elementary school, Chinese teachers and students reported more favorable relationships with each other than Dutch teachers and students. Similar results were found for students’ unconscious relationship perceptions measured with relationship drawings. In early school years, however, Chinese children experienced less favorable relationships with teachers than Dutch children, whereas relationship perceptions of teachers did not differ across countries. Furthermore, upper elementary students’ shyness was associated with lower teacher-reported and student-reported relationship quality in both countries, and surprisingly, sometimes the detrimental effect of shyness was stronger in China than in the Netherlands. However, upper elementary students’ shyness did not harm their unconscious relationship perceptions as measured by drawings, neither in the Netherlands nor in China. In early school years, shyness also appeared to be less harmful to teacher-reported relationship quality in the Netherlands than in China. Therefore, it is important to take cultural differences into account when investigating teacher-student relationships and associations with shyness.