Teacher-Student Relationship Inventory Testing for Invariance Across Upper Elementary and Junior High Samples

Teacher-student relationships have been extensively studied in preschool and early elementary school samples. However, much less is known about children's relationships with their teachers in upper elementary grades through high school. Using confirmatory factor analysis, this study extended previous research by providing further evidence for the three-factor structure of the Teacher-Student Relationship Inventory (TSRI) using an upper elementary school sample (n = 420) and a sample from junior high school (n = 635). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was also used to examine the invariance of the TSRI across both samples. Results from multigroup confirmatory factor analysis suggested that although partial invariance was observed across the samples, the consistency of fit indices together with explicit tests for the reasonableness of partial measurement invariance provided support that partial invariance was acceptable. Taken together, findings indicate cross-sample generalizability of the 14-item TSRI measure.