What makes a student feel vital? Links between teacher-student relatedness and teachers’ engaging messages

Abstract

AbstractRecent studies suggest that teacher messages can affect students’ well-being. Using a multilevel, variable, and person-centred approach, this study aimed to identify profiles of students according to their teachers’ use of engaging messages and analyse the relation among these profiles and teacher-student relatedness and students’ subjective vitality. A total of 1209 students participated in the study. At the student-level, profile analysis indicated the existence of four different profiles: thefew messagesprofile, theautonomous motivational appealsprofile, theloss-framed messagesprofile, and thegain-framed messagesprofile. At the teacher level, profile analysis indicated the existence of two profiles: thevariantand theinvariantprofiles. Results showed that overall, at both levels of analysis, teachers’ engaging messages related with teacher-student relatedness (either positively or negatively) with clear differences among profiles. Moreover, also at both levels of analysis, teacher-student relatedness related with students’ subjective vitality. Main findings and implications for practice are discussed.