The impact of teachers' disciplinary appropriateness and care on trust: the mediating role of trustworthiness

Background In the realm of organizational management, managers are adept at leveraging rewards and punitive measures to foster positive behaviors and mitigate negative ones, with a particular emphasis on the educational sector. To enhance teacher professional development, this study devises a moderation model, informed by two empirical investigations, which examines the impact of appropriate teacher discipline on teacher trust and explores the moderating role of teacher caring within this context. Methods Two questionnaires were conducted among 463 junior high school students in China. Results The findings show that: (1) proper teacher discipline significantly predicts teacher trustworthiness and trust; (2) teacher care significantly predicts teacher trustworthiness; and (3) for rural children, teacher care has a significant moderating effect on teacher trustworthiness. Conclusions The proper use of teacher punishment has a good impact on middle school students' faith in teachers, and gradually increasing the amount of teacher care may become a strategy to compensate for the losses produced by ineffective teacher discipline. Clinical trial number Not applicable.