# Development and Validation of the Primary School Students’ Perceived Teacher Trust Behaviors Scale

## TL;DR

This study created and tested a scale to measure how primary school students in China perceive trust behaviors from their teachers.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is the development of the Perceived Teacher Trust Behavior Scale (PTTBS) with strong psychometric properties for Chinese primary school students.

## Key findings

- The PTTBS consists of 13 items across four dimensions: Emotional Support, Competence Recognition, Academic Support, and Moral Recognition.
- The scale showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.90) and good convergent and construct validity.
- The PTTBS is a valid and reliable tool for assessing teacher trust behaviors from students’ perspectives in the Chinese context.

## Abstract

This study aimed to develop and validate a self-report instrument—the Perceived Teacher Trust Behavior Scale (PTTBS)—to assess primary school students’ perceptions of trust-related behaviors exhibited by their teachers. Adopting a child-centered perspective within the school context, we first conducted in-depth interviews and applied a grounded theory approach to identify dimensions and generate initial items. A cluster sampling method was used to recruit 1400 students (Grades 3~5) from three schools in Guizhou Province, China, who completed the questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed via exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS 30.0 and Mplus8.10 software. The final version of the PTTBS consists of 13 items across four dimensions: Emotional Support, Competence Recognition, Academic Support, and Moral Recognition. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.90) and split-half reliability (Spearman–Brown coefficient = 0.847). Significant correlations with an established Student-Teacher Relationship Scale were observed, along with good convergent validity (0.502~0.629) and construct validity. The PTTBS exhibits robust psychometric properties and serves as a valid tool for measuring Chinese primary school students’ perceptions of teacher trust behaviors, suitable for both research and practical applications.