Existing research on the social aspect of the teaching profession and classroom environments has consistently highlighted the educational and occupational benefits of positive teacher-student relationships. However, teachers’ social motivation remains underexplored with limited research having specifically examined the types and effects of teachers’ personal goal orientations as they pertain to connecting with students. The present dissertation attempted to differentiate teachers’ social goal orientations to better elucidate relations with teacher well-being and classroom outcomes. The three empirical manuscripts included aimed to (1) assess the relationships between teachers’ social goals, instructional self-efficacy, and classroom engagement with longitudinal data, (2) differentiate teachers’ underlying reasons for building relationships with students and explore potentially differential impacts of social goal subtypes on classroom engagement and teacher-student relationship quality, and (3) examine the roles of social masteryapproach and social work-avoidance goals in teachers’ psychological adjustment as informed by the job demands-resources model. Main study findings indicated that teachers who prioritized developing teacher-student relationships (social goals) and, more specifically, emphasized developing their ability to foster meaningful relationships with students (social mastery-approach goals) felt more confident in varied teaching tasks, perceived greater student engagement and more positive teacher-student relationships, and reported better work engagement and psychological adjustment. In contrast, teachers who aimed mainly to fulfill minimum requirements for interacting with students (social work-avoidance goals) reported higher levels of burnout and lower levels of work engagement, job satisfaction, and well-being. Study contributions to theoretical advancement, scale development, and teacher professional development pertaining to teacher-student relationship building were discussed.
