Measuring the student-teacher relationship using children’s drawings in an Italian elementary school

A growing amount of educational and developmental psychology literature has concluded that students’ affective relationships with their teachers are crucial for the cognitive and behavioral aspects of school adjustment and academic motivation, especially during the early years of school. In this study, we present data to assess the child’s perspective on the student-teacher relationship, using a children’s drawing method - Classroom Drawing - on a sample of 18 teachers and 228 children between the ages of 5 and 8. Two aspects of the drawings are analyzed: the representation of the classroom and of the teacher. The results show significant associations between the child’s representations, the teachers’ assessment of relationship quality, and the child’s scholastic achievement. The analyses provide a preliminary demonstration of the adaptability of Classroom Drawing as an instrument to assess the quality of the first relationships established between child and teacher.