THIS STUDY ASSESSED THE extent to which child–related factors had an impact on teacher–child relationships in Australian childcare settings. Analyses used data from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). The sample consisted of 1577 two- to three-year-old children (M = 33.9 months, SD = 2.93; 51.5 per cent male). Two separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relation between teachers' perceptions of their relationships with children and (a) gender; (b) Indigenous status; (c) language background other than English; (d) socioeconomic position; (e) special health-care needs; (f) expression and receptive language concerns; (g) psychosocial competence and problems; and (h) temperament factors (approach, persistence and reactivity). Results indicated that special health-care needs, receptive language concerns and all three temperament scales (approach, persistence and reactivity) significantly predicted conflict in teacher–child relationships. Close relationships were predicted by being female, Indigenous status, higher socioeconomic position, not having a special health-care need and no expressive language concerns.
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