Three Decades of Research on Individual Teacher-Child Relationships: A Chronological Review of Prominent Attachment-Based Themes

Attachment theory has played a prominent role in the study of affective relationships between teachers and individual children school settings. This review synthesizes three decades attachment-based research on teacher-child roughly covering period 1992 2022. Five key themes were discussed: (1) conceptualization assessment, (2) secure base autonomous exploration, (3) safe haven self-regulation, (4) attachment history relationship (dis)continuity, (5) teacher sensitivity mentalization. Following narrative approach, selection pivotal studies was made chronologically presented to illustrate developments per theme. The results indicated that assessment holds largely, but not completely, across different developmental phases, cultural contexts, measurement methods, informants. In addition, confirmed functions promoting children’s emotional security at school. Furthermore, progression been through development multiple methods for both children, by expanding from early childhood education up secondary education, more recent cross-cultural studies. However, there is still limited insight mechanisms explain (dis)continuity over time, striking lack dyadic mentalization as antecedents relationships. Research directions following decade(s) are discussed