Editorial: Student-teacher relationship quality research: Past, present and future

More than 20 years have passed since the publication of Pianta (2001) on the quality of the teacher-student relationship. Since then, several attempts have been made to elaborate theoretically the concept of teacher-student relationship quality and to provide empirical evidence of the impact that good teacher-student relationship quality might have on academic achievement, student psychological adjustment, and classroom climate. The teacher has been recognized as a “psychological parent” and defined as a secure base and safe heaven, following attachment theory (Verschueren and Koomen, 2012, 2021; Prino et al., 2022; Spilt et al., 2022). Several studies have shown that a relationship with the teacher characterized by affection, closeness, and respect predicts more favorable developmental outcomes and better adjustment to the classroom context in any school setting (Roorda et al., 2011, 2017; Longobardi et al., 2019, 2021; Lin et al., 2022). However, after 20 years, we saw the need to synthesize the current literature on the topic of teacher-learner relationship quality and to promote a collection of studies that provide new insights, ideas, and reflections to advance the research field and overcome current limitations. In this Research Topic, 16 publications were collected from different parts of the world. The Research Topic includes two literature reviews, several empirical works, some of which aim to develop and validate instruments to measure the quality of the teacher-student relationship, and others to promote new knowledge about the effects and mechanisms of action of the quality of the teacher-learner relationship on the psychological development and adjustment processes of children and adolescents. In addition, the Research Topic includes a contribution on possible intervention strategies on the quality of teacher-student relationship.