Early externalizing and internalizing problems undermine children's school success and long-term well-being. Leveraging a large, U.S.-representative dataset (N ≈ 14,810), we examined how kindergarten teachers' self-efficacy and school climate perceptions were linked to students' behavior problems in kindergarten and first grade. Teachers' self-efficacy and school climate perceptions were uniquely linked to kindergarteners' externalizing and internalizing behaviors, after controlling for demographic covariates and children's executive functions. Kindergarten teachers' higher self-efficacy predicted lower levels of children's externalizing problems in first grade, while teachers' positive school climate perceptions predicted children's lower internalizing problems in first grade. Longitudinal models demonstrated that teachers' perceived school climate and self-efficacy were uniquely associated with decreases in children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors from kindergarten to first grade. Findings highlight the importance of teachers' self-efficacy and school climate for children's socio-emotional development and underscore an urgent need to determine how best to support teacher well-being to optimize children's outcomes.
Keywords: behavior problems; externalizing; internalizing; school climate; teacher self-efficacy.