Relation between teacher interaction style and self-perceived meaning in life in the context of prosociality

Objectives. The aim of present study is to investigate relation between self-perceived prosocial behaviour and teacher interaction style; and relation between pupils' self-perceived behaviour and pupils' meaning in life. Sample and setting. The sample consisted of 429 Slovak lower secondary school pupils (male 55%, M-age 13.8 years) from 22 various schools in west Slovakia. The interaction style of twenty-two teachers was assessed. Methods of data collections: Slovak version of Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction Style - SK-QTI (Gavora, Mares, den Brok, 2003; Vasickova, 2015), Scale of Life Meaning - SLM (Halama, 2002) and Questionnaire on Prosocial Behaviour - PROS (modified version by Rajsky, Podmanicky et al, 2016). Research hypothesis. Authors supposed positive correlation between some dimensions of teacher interaction style (leadership, understanding, responsibility, understanding and admonishing) and pupils' self-perceived prosocial behaviour, and positive correlation between self-perceived prosocial behaviour and meaning in life. Statistical analysis. The programme SPSS, simple correlation analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient (standardized coefficient r) were used to examine data. Results. The positive correlation was shown between self-perceived prosocial behaviour of pupils and teachers' higher score in dimensions of leadership, understanding and responsibility. In contrary, some dimensions of teacher interaction style (strict, uncertain, dissatisfied and admonishing) correlate negatively with self-perceived prosocial behaviour of pupils. Similarly, positive correlation were assumed between self-perceived prosocial behaviour and cognitive, motivation and affective dimensions of pupils' meaning in life. Study limitation. Intentional non-representative sample, simple correlation analysis.