In this study, the differentiation status of preschool children's adaptation to school according to their relationship with teachers was examined. The study participants consisted of 326 children aged 60-72 months and 21 preschool teachers in different preschool educational institutions affiliated to the Provincial Directorate of National Education in Konya, Turkey. The School Adaptation Teacher Assessment Scale and Teacher-Student Relationship Scale were utilized to collect the research data. In the evaluation of the research data, firstly, teacher-child relationship scores were divided into groups for cluster analysis: conflictual/non-conflictual, dependent/ independent, and close/distant teacher-child relationship. The data gathered were analyzed using the independent-samples t-test. The results of the study revealed that the level of school adaptation of the children who had close, non-conflictual, and independent relationships with their teachers differed significantly from that of children who had distant, conflictual, and dependent relationships with their teachers. Positive teacher-child relationships reflected positively on the level of the child's school adaptation level. Teachers should establish close relationships with children in order to facilitate their adaptation to the school in the preschool period.

Despite recent growth in research highlighting the potential of teacher–child relationships to promote children’s development during the early years of school, questions remain about the importance of these relationships across elementary school. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (N = 1,364), this study examines between- and within-child associations between teacher–child relationship quality and children’s academic achievement and behavior problems from kindergarten (ages 4–6 years) through 5th grade (ages 9–11 years). Results suggest that increases in teacher–child relationship quality are associated with improvements in teacher-reported academic skills and reductions in behavior problems consistently throughout elementary school. As children progressed from kindergarten through fifth grade, the importance of teacher–child relationship quality is unchanging.