CORRELATES BETWEEN TEACHER –STUDENT RELATIONSHIP SUPPORTIVENESS AND ADOLESCENTS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT.

Children on average spend at least 15,000 hours in class rooms from age 4 or 5 until they leave high school (Meece & Eccles, 2010). The institutions therefore are the critical contexts for nurturing desirable values, beliefs, principles and ideas. This is more so for Kenya in the view that behaviour problems among Kenyan secondary school students have been on the rise (Aloka, & Bujuwoye, 2013). This study sought to establish the relationship between school supportiveness and adolescents’ psychosocial development, with the intent to enhance adolescents’ adjustment in school. The study employed a sample of 240 adolescents aged 13-18 and drawn from 4 Counties purposively selected from 47 Counties in Kenya. A final sample of 240 was obtained through multistage sampling strategy. The study was a descriptive correlational survey; it involved gathering data from adolescents using a questionnaire to assess the relationship between school supportiveness and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment. Findings showed that students-teachers relationship supportiveness was positively significantly correlated with adolescents’ Psychosocial adjustment at r 165*, n 222, p = .014 <.05, prosocial behaviours at r.170*, n = 222, p .011 < .05, social helpfulness at r.149*, n = 219, p .028 < .05, and resilience to risky behaviours at r.204**, n = 218, p .003 < .05. It was concluded that teacher- student relationship supportiveness influences adolescents’ social helpfulness, prosocial behaviours and resiliency to risky behaviours as well as overall psychosocial adjustment.