ABSTRACT
The Student–Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) is one of the most extensively used instruments that evaluate the quality of teacher–child relationships. The STRS has a strong theoretical background based on attachment theory and research on parent–child and teacher–child relationships. The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensional structure of the adapted STRS proposed by Koomen et al. (2012) in the Greek educational settings. Another purpose was to examine the intercorrelations of the Dependency subscale with the Closeness and Conflict subscales of the adapted version of STRS, when applied in a cultural context different from the context, where it was developed originally. We applied confirmatory factor analyses with item parcelling in two independent samples (N 1 = 118 teachers, 921 students and N 2 = 118 teachers, 925 students). Findings provided evidence for the dimensional structure of the adapted STRS subscales and its validity. Results also showed that the Dependency subscale is positively correlated with Closeness in Greece as a background with more collectivistic characteristics. This finding suggests that the cultural universality of dependency can be challenged and that the possible socio-cultural influences in the nature and interpretation of dependent relationships needs to be further examined.
