Background and Purpose: Educational abuse is a form of maltreatment experienced by students that can lead to adverse academic and psychological outcomes. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the educational abuse model based on the child's temperament with the mediating role of the quality of the student-teacher relationship in elementary school students.
Method: This study employed a descriptive-correlational design. The study population consisted of 18,134 second-grade elementary school students in Khoy County in the academic year 2023–2024. Using a multistage cluster random sampling method, 226 students, along with their mothers and teachers, were selected. Data were collected using the Educational Neglect and Abuse Qestionnaire- Students Form (ENAQ; Noeparvar Qarebagh & Zeinali, 2019) and Iranian validated version of the Child Temperament Scale (CTS; Sleddens et al., 2013), and the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 1994). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in SPSS-24 and AMOS-24.
Results: The findings showed that surgency /extroverted temperament was positively related to with conflict (β = .19, p = .010) and closeness (β = .21, p = .002) in student–teacher relationships. Negative affectivity (β = −.17, p = .010) and effortful control (β = .18, p = .010) were significantly related with closeness. Furthermore, surgency/extraversion (β = −.20, p = .001), negative affectivity (β = .25, p = .001), effortful control (β = −.15, p = .009), conflict (β = −.18, p = .001), and closeness (β = −.25, p = .001) were significant predictors of educational abuse. However, the relationship between negative affectivity (β = −.03, p = .660) and effortful control (β = .04, p = .430) with conflict was not significant. About indirect effects, closeness significantly mediated the relationships between surgency/extraversion (β = −.05, p = .007), negative affectivity (β = .04, p = .005), effortful control (β = −.05, p = .030), and educational abuse. In contrast, the mediating role of conflict was not significant.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that child temperament and the quality of student–teacher relationships are important correlates of educational abuse among elementary school students. Positive student-teacher relationships can function as a protective mechanism in the association between temperamental characteristics and lower levels of educational abuse. These findings emphasize the importance of school-based interventions aimed at strengthening self-regulation skills and improving the quality of student-teacher relationships to reduce educational misbehavior. |
