Teacher-child relationships in Turkish and United States schools: A cross-cultural study

Recent educational research utilising Bowlby's attachment theory has focused on children's interpersonal relationships with their teachers. Research in this area has indicated that the security of the teacher-child relationship influences children's development in many of the same ways as secure parent-child attachments. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare a United States and Turkish sample of teachers and their perceived relationships with their students. It was hypothesised that because teachers in the United States receive more information related to the developmental needs of children, they would be more sensitive to the need for closeness in teacher-child relationships. Results indicate that, in fact, Turkish teachers report less conflict and more closeness to their students than did United States teachers