In Case You Haven't Heard…

Teens who have good, supportive relationships with their teachers enjoy better health as adults, according to research published in School Psychology . Perhaps surprisingly, although friendships are important to adolescents, the study did not find the same link between good peer relationships and students' health in adulthood. “This research suggests that improving students' relationships with teachers could have important, positive and long‐lasting effects beyond just academic success,” said Jinho Kim, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Korea University and author of the study. Kim analyzed data on nearly 20,000 participants from the Add Health study, a nationally representative longitudinal study in the United States that followed participants for 13 years, from seventh grade into early adulthood. Kim found that, as expected, participants who had reported better relationships with both their peers and teachers in middle school and high school also reported better physical and mental health in their mid‐20s. However, when he controlled for family background by looking at pairs of siblings together, only the link between good teacher relationships and adult health remained significant.