Well-being, social inclusion and academic self-concept are important issues in the school context and the teachers’ “invisible hand” (Endedijk et al., 2022), when relating with students, can indeed foster their development. Some important qualities of the teacher-student-relationship (TSR) are an error-friendly and supporting feedback-culture as well as low pressure to perform . Many studies could show that these elements relate to well-being and positive emotions at school (Decristan et al., 2022), to better participation and social inclusion (Nicolay et al., 2024) and to higher students’ academic self-concept (Zdoupas & Laubenstein, 2023). Particularly, the teachers’ goal orientation (mastery- vs. performance-oriented) influences classroom structures and students’ emotions (Wang et al., 2017). In this sense a teacher’s attitude toward a low pressure to perform, but oriented to support and promote mastery in students, can make a qualitative difference. The impact of relationship quality is for students with special educational needs (SEN) and more specifically those with social and emotional behavioral problems even more important. In this context Bolz (2021) found that specific the teacher’s emotional support has direct effects on emotion regulation strategies and these have a direct impact on externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems. By enhancing their emotion regulation strategies, the teacher’s emotional support has a protective function for students at risk. The meta-analysis of Sankalaite et al. (2021) found the strongest effects of teacher-student-relationship-quality (TSRQ) on vulnerable and disadvantage children with weaker executive functions and low social economic status. That means that specially students at risk, so those with “weak” starting points, benefit the most from school interventions which focus on enhancing teacher’s emotional support.

All the above-mentioned quality aspects of the TSR seem to be a common thread in schools with inclusive approaches. In contrast teachers in selective systems tend to be performance-oriented and cultivate more competition. Empirically, though, the constant exposure to pressure-oriented and competitive learning environments has been proven to rather have a negative impact on overall academic performance and students’ well-being. The consequences arising from a selective education system particularly affect less privileged students and those with SEN (OECD, 2023). It is reasonable to consider a somehow influencing link between the school system (inclusive vs. separate) and the TSRQ.  First steps toward a better comprehension of this kind of correlation has been empirically made with results which speak for inclusive school models (Labsch et al., 2023). The study of Labsch et al. (2023) shows that students without SEN in inclusive schools perceive their teachers as more attentive and caring in comparison to those in selective schools.

Similarly, we assume an implicit correlation between the school model, the TSRQ and students’ psychological, social and learning development, considering that different school models (inclusive vs. selective) can shape the kind of teachers’ support as well as their kind of goal-orientation (Wang et al., 2017). Hence, this study focuses on patterns of development of well-being, inclusion, academic self-concept and TSRQ, regarding SEN and school selectivity as important background conditions. To this end, latent class analysis (LCA) first, and latent transition analyses (LTA) thereupon were conducted with longitudinal data from N = 807 lower secondary school students.

The research questions are: (1) How many and which classes are in the data to a specific time point and with respect to the school model? (2) Are the classes found replicable across distinct time points? (3) Can specific patterns of transition be identified over time? (4) What predicts latent class membership (5) and possible shifts from one class into another?

Present longitudinal study relies on data from a Swiss national project (“IFCH-SekI”), which covers all three years of the Swiss lower secondary school level from schoolyear begin 2019 to schoolyear end 2021. The peculiarity of the junior high school in Switzerland is the cantonal and local variation in its organizational structure, whose spectrum ranges from high selective, somewhat less selective to full inclusive. The sample involves N = 807 students, who enter secondary school in August 2019. Of these 807 students, who were at time 1 on average 13.11 years old, there are n = 98 (12.1 %) students with SEN; n = 437 students (54.4%) are male; n = 407 students (50.4 %) were in low selective schools. To run latent class and latent transition analysis we first had to dichotomize the school model variable in “high vs. low selective” schools (with coding 1 for low selectivity and 2 for high selectivity). We considered those schools with strict separation of three levels of performance as “high selective” and the rest with at least a minimum of inclusion as “low selective”. Well-being, social inclusion and academic self-concept were measured with the “Perception of Inclusion Questionnaire” (PIQ; Venetz et al., 2015) which captures these constructs in three subscales with four items each, based on a 4-point Likert scale. The TSRQ is a self-developed scale focused on students’ perceptions of the teacher’s emotional- and cognitive-empathic support (Pastore et al., 2024). Emotional support provides students with a sense of security and a safe learning place to rely on to develop best. Cognitive-empathic support is expressed in joint attention activities, which are socially coordinated (inter)actions to achieve a common goal, in which intentions and emotions are shared and continuously attuned. Each of the two subscales (emotional support and joint attention) has five items whose assessment is given by a 5-point Likert scale. Both questionnaires (PIQ and TSRQ) were validated and are reliable and invariant over time. We first run cross-sectional independent LCA-models with 2 to 6 classes solutions, while separating low from high selective schools-participants. To identify the best solution model, we balanced both statistical information criteria, theoretical and practical considerations. We did the same by comparing different solution models of LTA. We then used multinomial regression to compare the LTA classes and test the predictive power of school selectivity and having SEN.

We identified four patterns in both low and high selective schools: “happy” students, feeling generally well and well-supported by teachers; “unhappy” students, neither feeling well nor supported, “teacher-oriented” students, not feeling well but well-supported by teachers, and finally “unstable” students, changing the perceptions of well-being, inclusion and self-concept over time but consistently feeling no reliance on teachers. Particularly striking is the result showing that high selective schools “produce” more “unhappy” (58,2%) then “happy” students (32,8%) whereas in low selective schools 67,2% of the students are “happy”. Another important finding regards the fluctuation of students from one class into another, which is also associated with school selectivity. In low selective schools, considerable shifts were from “unstable” and “teacher-oriented” to “happy”. Still, 24% of the students who were in the “teacher-oriented” profile shifted to the “unhappy” profile. In high selective schools the biggest shifts were from “happy” to “unhappy” and “unstable”. Also, 33% of the students who were in the “teacher-oriented” profile in t1 shifted to the “unhappy” profile in t3. These results reveal that 1) student development goes hand in hand with the TSRQ; 2) there is a considerable amount of students, who are struggling at school and need teachers’ qualitative support; 3) there are three groups of students, which can be considered at risk to academic failure and maladaptive developments; 4) school selectivity and having SEN has a significant impact on these students, which involves a necessary paradigm shift to enhance much more inclusive systems and teachers’ awareness of students’ psychological needs. Finally, the dichotomization of the school models is a limitation as low selective schools still keep those selective elements that can shape the relationship-quality and have a negative impact on students’ development. More research to unravel differences of TSRQ in diametral and unequivocal different school systems should follow.

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