Teachers' sentiment about physical appearance of primary school students: Associations with student-teacher relationship quality and student popularity among classroom peers

Findings indicate that the perception that teachers have of students' appearance may influence the way they look at the students and thus the quality of the relationship they develop with them. Moreover, the relationship that children have with their teacher may influence students' social status among peers. Driven by these considerations, in the present study, we explored the association between teachers' sentiments about the physical appearance of primary school students, student-teacher relationship quality and student popularity among classroom peers. We recruited a convenience sample consisting of 474 students attending primary school in Northern Italy. Teachers reported about the quality of their relationship using a self-report questionnaire, while their sentiments about students' physical appearance was evaluated by applying a popular sentiment analysis lexicon to a textual response to an open-ended question. Children's social status in the classroom was assessed with a sociometric questionnaire. Correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Students who received a positive description from their teachers had higher student-teacher closeness, while receiving a negative description was related to increased student-teacher conflict and lower closeness. Moreover, student-teacher conflict showed a negative effect on the students' social preference scores. Finally, we found evidence that teachers' negative sentiment about their students' appearance had a negative effect on students' social preference by means of an increase in student-teacher conflict-i.e., a mediation effect. This finding highlights the importance of teachers' attitude toward students' appearance in shaping the relationship they have with their students and on students' acceptance by classroom peers.