Classroom Climate, Teacher–Student Relationships, and the Development of Prosocial Behavior: Developmental Psychological Perspectives on School Environments – Tomas Jungert and Tomas Kempe

Schools are central developmental contexts shaping children’s and adolescents’ social, emotional, and academic functioning. Drawing on developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology, we examine how classroom climate and teacher–student relationships influence prosocial behavior, cooperation, aggression, bullying, and learning across development. The focus is on different age groups (childhood through adolescence), causal evidence, and research on school-based interventions, as well as methodological and contextual challenges in evaluating classroom climate interventions.