The Quality of Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale in the Kindergarten: A Greek Study

Abstract

The present study elaborates on the issue of the relationship quality between parents and teachers. It focuses on kindergarten as it constitutes an educational context that addresses unique challenges for parent-teacher interaction and there is a lack of measurement tools to capture the affective dimensions of this interaction. A newly constructed measure is presented, the Quality of Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale in the kindergarten (QPTRS-K) which was developed on the basis of four quality indicators that were proposed. A nationally selected sample of 913 mothers and 233 kindergarten teachers provided data for the QPTRS-K corresponding forms. Moreover, participants provided information about a set of theoretically-linked variables to examine reliability and validity issues. Two factors emerged that were interpreted as Trust/Acceptance and Communication/Responsiveness, providing evidence for the conceptual considerations of the scale development. Mothers and teachers’ total scores and subscales had high internal consistency. The relations with the proposed variables and the direction of the links were indicative of the validity of the scale. Implications concerning policy and research are discussed.