Teacher-Child Relationships and Child Temperament in Early Achievement

Teacher-child relationship quality and child temperament have been associated with children’s school adjustment and academic performance. However, few studies explore the influence of both child temperament and teacher-child relationship quality on children’s academic development. This study investigates the role of teacher-child relationships on kindergarten children’s temperament and academic performance. Study participants were comprised of 324 kindergarten students, attending 22 schools in urban, low-income communities. A multivariate regression analysis was used to explore whether teacher-child relationships moderate or mediate the association between child temperament and academic performance. The study reinforces previous findings that conflictual teacher-child relationships inhibit children’s academic performance and close teacher-child relationships promote children’s academic performance. For cautious children, close teacher-child relationships moderate mathematics performance. For high maintenance children, conflictual teacher-child mediate children’s critical thinking. The findings have implications for teacher training, on-going teacher development, and the promotion of early academic development for children at-risk for underachievement.