Teacher-student perceptual mismatch in positive co-experiences is associated with adolescent depression, bullying victimization, and suicidality.

Background: Positive teacher-student interactions may be associated with adolescent mental health, but teachers and students may not experience the same interactions similarly. Integrating self-determination theory with the Operations Triad Model, we examined whether mismatch in positive teacher-student co-experiences was associated with adolescent mental health and whether mismatch direction mattered. Methods: Cross-sectional paired data were analyzed from 1,836 students aged 11-17 years nested within 40 homeroom teachers in Hunan Province, China. Students and teachers completed parallel three-item measures of positive co-experiences. Four profiles were defined using reporter-specific medians: both high, teacher high-student low, both low, and teacher low-student high. Generalized estimating equations accounted for classroom clustering and adjusted for demographic covariates. Results: Homeroom-teacher ratings showed little convergence with class-mean student ratings ( Conclusion: Teacher-student perceptual mismatch was associated with adolescent mental health in a direction-specific manner. The findings are consistent with the proposition that positive relational experiences may be most protective when teacher-perceived support is also experienced positively by students, and that multi-informant discrepancies can provide useful contextual information for school-based mental health screening, rather than constituting clinical diagnostic measures.