Student Recognition Matters: How Teacher–Student Relationship Promotes Student Well-Being Through Parallel Process Latent Growth Modeling?

With increasing attention given to student recognition, its relationship with students’ well-being has remained underexplored. This longitudinal study investigated not only the parallel development process between student recognition and psychological wellbeing over time but also examined how teacher–student relationship contributes to with this co-developmental process over time. Using data from a three-wave survey of 314 secondary school students, latent growth models were applied to examine the longitudinal trajectories of student recognition and wellbeing separately. Subsequently, parallel process latent growth models were employed to capture the interrelations between the two constructs and to test how the teacher–student relationship influences their growth patterns over time. Results revealed that both student recognition and well-being experienced significant increases over time. The parallel latent growth models indicated that the intercepts and slopes of recognition and well-being were positively correlated, and the initial level of recognition significantly predicted the rate of change in well-being, highlighting the facilitating role of student recognition in promoting students’ well-being development. Moreover, teacher–student relationship was positively associated with the intercept and slope of student recognition, as well as the intercept of wellbeing, suggesting the critical role of teacher–student relationship in fostering both student recognition and well-being.