BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
The Influence of Teacher Care on Midddle School Students' Social-Emotional Competence: Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey (2013-2014)
Provisionally accepted
- Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China
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Social-Emotional Competence is regarded as a core ability necessary for individual development in the 21st century, playing a significant role in improving students' academic performance and promoting social development. As key guides to student development, teachers play an important role in cultivating children's social-emotional competence. To explore the impact of teacher care on students' social-emotional competence and its underlying mechanism, this study constructs a moderated mediation model based on the 2013–2014 data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), which is the most recent nationally representative dataset available for this type of analysis. Using the data on teacher care, teacher–student relationship, social-emotional competence, migration status and relevant covariates, a total of 12,319 valid samples are subjected to descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, mediation effect test, and moderated mediation analysis. The results disclosed that teacher care positively predicted social-emotional competence, teacher-student relationship partially mediated the relationship between teacher care and social-emotional competence. Analysis of simple moderation effects suggests that students' migration status moderated the relationship between teacher care and teacher-student relationship. These findings highlight the critical role of increasing teachers' caring behaviors and fostering positive teacher-student relationship in enhancing adolescents' social-emotional competence. It holds significant practical importance in promoting the harmonious development of physical and mental health among middle school students.
Keywords: Midddle School Students, Migration status, social-emotional competence, teacher care, teacher-student relationship
Received: 17 Nov 2025; Accepted: 03 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Li, Juan and Qi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chunhui Qi
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