Associations of perceived teacher–student relationship and friendship quality with adolescents' interest in physical education: a latent profile analysis

Objective This study employed a person-centered Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to explore adolescents' perceived teacher–student and friendship relationships in the school environment and to examine their association with interest in physical education. Methods A survey was conducted among 3,613 adolescents using the Teacher–Student Relationship Scale, the Friendship Quality Scale, and the Interest in Physical Education Scale. LPA was applied to identify relationship quality profiles, and multinomial logistic regression was used to examine gender differences and associations with interest in physical education. Results Three profiles emerged from the LPA: the Low Relationship Quality profile (23%, n = 855), the Moderate Relationship Quality profile (60%, n = 2,156), and the High Relationship Quality profile (17%, n = 602). Adolescents with lower levels of physical education interest were significantly more likely to belong to the Low Relationship Quality profile compared with the Moderate Relationship Quality profile [OR = 0.01, 95% CI (0.01, 0.02)]. In contrast, those with higher physical education interest were significantly more likely to belong to the High Relationship Quality profile [OR = 4.29, 95% CI (3.44, 5.35)]. In addition, males had higher odds of being classified into the High Relationship Quality profile than females [OR = 1.93, 95% CI (1.59, 2.35)]. Significant differences were observed across profiles on all dimensions of teacher–student and friendship relationships (all p < 0.001). Conclusion Adolescents exhibit heterogeneous experiences of teacher–student and friendship relationship quality, which were significantly associated with differences in interest in physical education. By applying a person-centered approach, the study extends prior research by showing that teacher–student and friendship contexts are linked to adolescents' interest in physical education, underscoring the importance of considering interest as a distinct outcome in relational research.