Relation between fluid intelligence and mathematics and reading comprehension achievements: The moderating role of student teacher relationships and school bonding

Cristina Semeraro; Pasquale Musso; Rosalinda Cassibba; Susanna Annese; Antonietta Scurani; Daniela Lucangeli; Alessandro Taurino; Gabrielle Coppola

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290677

Relation between fluid intelligence and mathematics and reading comprehension achievements: The moderating role of student teacher relationships and school bonding

PLoS One. 2023 Sep 28;18(9):e0290677. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290677. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Cristina Semeraro¹, Pasquale Musso¹, Rosalinda Cassibba¹, Susanna Annese¹, Antonietta Scurani², Daniela Lucangeli³, Alessandro Taurino¹, Gabrielle Coppola¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
² Lower Secondary Public School «Michelangelo» Bari, Bari, Italy.
³ Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.

Abstract

Several studies have shown the relevance among students of the quality of their interpersonal relationships for their academic achievement. Nevertheless, most studies available have explored the relation between the cognitive functioning and academic achievement without taking into account the quality of the relationships experienced in the school environment. Furthermore, the studies that have begun to consider the joint role of these factors in the prediction of academic achievement are scant. Therefore, it appears of relevance to deepen the relation between cognitive functioning and quality of school relationships in order to support students' academic achievement and the potential of youth. In this paper, we examined the moderating role of the quality of student-teacher relationships and school bonding (STR-SB) in the associations of fluid intelligence (Gf) with academic achievement among adolescents (N = 219). A multiple-group structural equation modelling analysis revealed that STR-SB quality moderated unexpectedly only the link between Gf and mathematics. The findings support the idea that the quality of student-teacher relationships may be a relevant dimension to be considered to clarify the association between cognitive functioning and academic achievement.

Copyright: © 2023 Semeraro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Comprehension*
Humans
Intelligence
Mathematics
Reading*
Schools
Students / psychology

Grants and funding

The participation of Pasquale Musso and Rosalinda Cassibba in the preparation of this manuscript was supported by a grant from the European Union – NextGenerationEU through the program MUR-Promotion and Development Fund - DM 737/2021, co-founded by the University of Bari Aldo Moro with the project CROSS- Building multi-system resilience approaches as new Opportunities to deal with Stressful Situations. A complex biopsychosocial approach to govern adversity, crises and current and future transformations. Project identification code S59. CUP: H99J21017310006.