Relationship between students’ perceived parent–teacher–student relationships, sense of school belonging, and well-being in China: investigating the difference between primary and secondary students

The academic performance and psychological well-being of school-aged children are heavily shaped by the social scaffolding provided by parents, educators, and peers, according to a comprehensive new study examining thousands of students in eastern China. The research, which utilized data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Survey on Social and Emotional Skills, highlights that a student’s sense of school belonging acts as a critical psychological bridge translating positive interpersonal relationships into overall life satisfaction. However, the study also exposes a stark developmental divide, revealing that older secondary school students report significantly lower levels of well-being, school belonging, and positive teacher relationships compared to their younger primary school counterparts.

The findings arrive amid growing policy concern regarding adolescent mental health in China and globally. Over the past decade, rapid socioeconomic transformation has coincided with an uptick in psychological distress among youth, prompting researchers and educational authorities to scrutinize the systemic drivers of student wellness. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Baumeister and Leary’s need-to-belong theory, the study sought to move past fragmented analyses of single relationships—such as solely looking at parent-child or teacher-student dynamics—to evaluate how a triad of support systems collectively influences a child’s mental state.

Research Design and Demographic Scope

The study analyzed data gathered in November 2019 from Suzhou, an economically developed municipality in China’s Jiangsu Province. Utilizing a stratified two-stage cluster sampling design, the OECD survey originally captured responses from 7,246 students aged 10 and 15 years across 151 schools. After filtering to focus strictly on Grade 4 and Grade 10 cohorts and removing entries with missing values on key variables, the final analytical sample comprised 6,742 participants. This included 3,508 fourth-grade primary students (52%) and 3,234 tenth-grade secondary students (48%).

Methodologically, the researchers employed a battery of validated instruments. Perceived relationships with parents, teachers, and friends were evaluated using targeted subdimensions measuring emotional support, fairness, and trust. School belonging was assessed using a scale adapted from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), while subjective psychological well-being was gauged using the 5-item WHO Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Structural equation modeling with bootstrap resampling procedures was subsequently utilized to test mediation pathways and control for confounding variables.

Key Empirical Findings and Data Insights

Statistical evaluation of the dataset yielded several distinct patterns regarding how students perceive their social environments and how those perceptions correlate with happiness and stability. Across the full sample, the four core predictive dimensions—relationships with parents, teachers, and friends, alongside a sense of school belonging—collectively explained 44.8% of the variance in student well-being.

Correlational analyses confirmed that positive interactions across all relational nodes were significantly tied to higher well-being scores ($p < 0.001$). Perceived relationships with parents ($r = 0.40$), friends ($r = 0.39$), and teachers ($r = 0.24$) all demonstrated positive associations, with school belonging displaying the strongest direct correlation with overall well-being ($r = 0.50$).

However, independent $t$-tests comparing Grade 4 and Grade 10 cohorts illuminated sharp developmental discrepancies. Primary school students reported markedly higher scores in perceived relationships with parents ($M = 3.55$ vs. $3.15$) and peers ($M = 3.20$ vs. $3.02$), as well as a significantly stronger overall sense of school belonging ($M = 3.05$ vs. $2.83$) and psychological well-being ($M = 3.59$ vs. $2.98$). Conversely, secondary students reported more favorable perceptions of teacher relationships ($M = 3.43$) than fourth graders ($M = 3.24$), though regression modeling indicated that this teacher-student connection lost direct predictive power over well-being by the tenth-grade level.

The Mediating Role of School Belonging

A central discovery of the research is the validation of school belonging as a partial mediator between interpersonal networks and psychological health. The structural equation models demonstrated that while parental and peer relationships exert both direct effects on well-being and indirect effects channeled through school belonging, the influence of teacher relationships operates primarily through this mediating psychological mechanism for older students.

In educational environments, the satisfaction of the fundamental need to belong acts as an internalizing mechanism. When students feel accepted, respected, and supported within their school social ecosystem, that perception transforms external relational inputs into robust psychological well-being. For younger children, teachers serve as an immediate, direct source of fulfillment for these belonging needs. As students mature into adolescence, however, psychological shifts alter their social priorities.

Developmental Shifts: Primary Versus Secondary Realities

The stark differences observed between fourth and tenth-grade students underscore the complex realities of adolescent development and institutional pressures in modern educational systems. According to psychosocial developmental frameworks, adolescence marks a period where individuals increasingly pursue autonomy, distance themselves from immediate family structures, and elevate the importance of peer validation and identity formation.

In China, this developmental trajectory intersects with intense academic competition, particularly the pressure surrounding high school entrance examinations. As secondary students navigate heavier workloads and heightened evaluation stress, their threshold for satisfying belonging needs rises. Consequently, intra-school support mechanisms frequently face strain. While primary students experience direct emotional dividends from teacher-student engagement, secondary students often look outward—toward peer groups, online networks, and extracurricular communities—to supplement deficits in school-based connection. This broader social dispersion can dilute the localized protective impact of school belonging.

Expert Perspectives and Policy Implications

Education specialists and school authorities analyzing the study emphasize that while academic rigor remains a hallmark of the Chinese educational model, student mental health and institutional belonging require intentional policy interventions. International comparative data frequently note that despite high academic proficiency, students in certain high-performing Asian jurisdictions report lower-than-average senses of school belonging relative to OECD benchmarks.

In light of these findings, researchers urge a multi-tiered approach involving parents, educators, and institutional leaders:

• Parental Adjustments: Families, particularly of adolescents, are encouraged to foster warm, communicative home environments that balance academic encouragement with emotional support, avoiding excessive performance-driven pressure.
• Primary-Level Teacher Engagement: Primary school educators are advised to leverage their direct relational influence, utilizing close teacher-student rapport to anchor young children’s security and emotional health.
• Secondary-Level Community Building: For secondary schools, where direct teacher-student bonding exerts less isolated influence on happiness, educators must focus on systemic community building. Recommendations include cultivating inclusive classroom climates, supporting peer-mentoring programs, amplifying student voice, and proactively assisting socioeconomically disadvantaged students who lack external support resources.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

While the study provides robust empirical backing for ecological and belongingness theories within an urban Chinese context, the authors note several methodological limitations. The cross-sectional design prevents definitive causal claims regarding the directionality of the mediation pathways, signaling a need for longitudinal or experimental tracking in future research. Additionally, because data was gathered exclusively from Suzhou—an economically advanced municipality in eastern China—generalizability to rural regions or areas with vastly different socioeconomic conditions remains constrained.

Researchers also point out a temporal consideration: data collection occurred in late 2019, prior to the implementation of China’s sweeping "Double Reduction" policy in 2021. This regulatory shift, designed to alleviate after-school tutoring burdens and reduce homework stress, has altered campus life by granting students more on-campus time and revised engagement opportunities with teachers and peers. Subsequent studies utilizing post-policy datasets will be essential to evaluate whether these structural reforms have successfully shifted the baseline for student well-being and school belonging nationwide.