Focusing on Teacher-Children Relationship Perception and Children’s Social Emotional Behaviors - the PATHS Preschool Program

The aim of study was to examine the effectiveness of PATHS program on children’s and teachers’ behaviors by evaluating perceptions of children and teachers in regard to their relationships with each other. The sample included 129 children (5-6 aged) and 28 teachers in the intervention group and 114 children (5-6 aged) and 30 teachers in the comparison group. The Classroom Atmosphere Rating Scale, the Teaching Style Rating Scale, Teacher Self Report Assessment, Head Start Competence Scale, Student–Teacher Relationship Scale-STRS, and Semi-Structured Play Interview were used to gather data. According to the results, teachers in PATHS classrooms were observed to be more competent in terms of quality of the classroom climate though there were no differences between social-emotional behaviors of children. While teachers’ perceptions did not yield any differences in regard to their relationships with children, children in intervention classes described relationships with teachers significantly more positively than the others.

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