Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2013

Department

Counseling and Human Development

Abstract

Approximately one-fifth of adolescents develop depressive symptoms. Given that youth spend a good deal of their lives at school, it seems plausible that supportive relationships with teachers could benefit their emotional well-being. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the association between emotionally supportive teacher relationships and depression in adolescence. The so-called principle-effect and stress-buffer models could explain relationships between teacher emotional support and depressive symptoms, yet no study has used both models to test bidirectional relationships between teacher support and depressive symptoms in students separately by sex. Four thousand three hundred forty-one students (boys: n = 2063; girls: n = 2278) from grades 8 to 12 completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), List of Threatening Experiences Questionnaire (LTEQ), and an instrument developed for the study to measure teacher support annually for 5 years. Results support neither of the two proposed models. Instead they indicate that in the first years of high school students of both sexes with average and high numbers of stressful events benefit from teacher support, while teacher support might have iatrogenic effects on students experiencing low numbers of stressful events. Possible explanations for the findings and future research are discussed.

Comments

© 2013 American Psychological Association

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031767

This article may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.

Original Publication Information

Pössel, Patrick, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Michael G. Sawyer, Susan H. Spence, Annie C. Bjerg. "Associations Between Teacher Emotional Support and Depressive Symptoms in Australian Adolescents: A 5-year Longitudinal Study." Developmental Psychology, 49(11): 2135-2146.

DOI

10.1037/a0031767

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