In a series of studies, teacher competence was studied from a student perspective. Students from different grades in secondary schools were interviewed about their views on what characterises a good teacher. Based on interviews and open-ended questionnaires, it was possible to construct a questionnaire with fixed alternatives that could be applied to a greater number of students. This questionnaire has since been tried, revised and subsequently used as a measure of teacher competence from a student perspective. A reasonable assumption is that teacher competence is related to students' attitudes to school work and learning as well as to students' self-confidence and self-conceptions. Related to student development, studies have been conducted to find out whether there are some basic strategies for handling conflict situations among teenagers. In this article a causal model is tested in which teacher competence, students' school attitudes and self-confidence are related to students' conflict handling strategies. The results show some substantial relationships between factors in the school environment and ways of handling conflicts. There were also some interesting differences between boys and girls. The main focus of the article is on a measurement model concerning teacher competence and a causal model in which conflict handling strategies are related to teacher competence, students' school attitudes and self-confidence.