Der Zusammenhang von Lehrkraftfeedback, sozialer Akzeptanz und der Schüler*innen-Lehrkraft-Beziehung in der Grundschule: Eine Untersuchung sozialer Referenzierungsprozesse auf Dyadenebene

Relying on social referencing theory experimental and longitudinal studies have shown that students’ social acceptance by their peers is influenced positively by positive teacher feedback and negatively by negative teacher feedback. However, the way most studies operationalize teachers’ feedback does not allow for taking into account interindividual differences in students’ perception of teachers’ feedback behavior. Therefore, the present paper investigated social referencing processes at the level of student dyads (N = 15,764). Cross-classified multilevel models were applied to a cross-sectional dataset of N = 806 primary school students (M_Alter = 9.22). This made it possible to examine the relationship between the teacher feedback perceived individually by students towards their classmates and the social acceptance shown to them. Second, the extent to which the relationship with the teacher moderates this relationship was investigated. Results confirm previous findings on the relationship between teacher feedback and social acceptance: Receiving positive teacher feedback is associated with an increase in social acceptance by peers and receiving negative teacher feedback is associated with a decrease in social acceptance by peers. Results also indicate that for negative feedback this relationship is stronger for students who have a good relationship with their teacher.