Introduction Social-Emotional Competence is regarded as a core ability necessary for individual development in the 21st century, playing a significant role in improving students’ academic performance and promoting social development. As key guides to student development, teachers play an important role in cultivating children’s social-emotional competence. This study aims to explore the impact of teacher care on students’ social-emotional competence and its underlying mechanism. Methods A moderated mediation model was constructed based on the 2013-2014 data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), the most recent nationally representative dataset available for this type of analysis. Using data on teacher care, teacher-student relationship, social-emotional competence, migration status, and relevant covariates, a total of 12,319 valid samples were analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, mediation effect test, and moderated mediation analysis. Results Teacher care positively predicted social-emotional competence, teacher-student relationship partially mediated the relationship between teacher care and social-emotional competence. Analysis of simple moderation effects suggests that students’ migration status moderated the relationship between teacher care and teacher-student relationship. Discussion These findings highlight the critical role of enhancing teachers’ caring behaviors and fostering positive teacher-student relationships in improving adolescents’ social-emotional competence. This study holds significant practical implications for promoting the harmonious physical and mental health development of middle school students.
Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.