Social skills refer to a complex set of skills and behaviors that empower an individual to interact appropriately with others and avoid unaccepted responses (Aksoy and Baran, 2010). Preschool children’s social skills can be measured by assessing their cooperation, self-control, and assertion (Gresham et al., 2011; Maleki et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2022). Cooperation refers to children interacting with others in an organized way, such as helping others, forming friendships, and following social rules. Self-control is defined as children expressing emotions or other social behaviors appropriately in various social situations. Assertion refers to initiating behaviors such as children introducing themselves and seeking information from others.

Preschool children transition from home to kindergarten and social skills are necessary to better adapt to social life, which largely determines their future social adjustment (Zhu Y. T. et al., 2021). A high level of social skills during preschool age can help children internalize social rules, acquire positive social behaviors, and interact with peers effectively (Hosokawa and Katsura, 2017; Hukkelberg et al., 2019). However, deficits in social skills may lead to a series of adaptation problems, such as problem behaviors, loneliness, depression, and even violence (Ziv, 2013; Davis and Qi, 2020; Kamper-DeMarco et al., 2020; García-Fernández et al., 2022). According to the direct linear effects model of children’s development, temperament can directly affect children’s social and emotional development. Some extreme temperaments, such as negative affect and extroversion, can result in poor social adaptation in children (Sanson et al., 2004; Taylor et al., 2014). Thus, it is crucial to explore the influence of the negative affect component of temperament on children’s social skills and determine the key protective and risk factors.

Temperament refers to constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, and it is a core feature that affects personality, emotion, and social behaviors (Rothbart, 2011; Eivers et al., 2012). Among all the aspects of temperament, reactivity refers to the behavioral intensity and frequency of response to stimuli (De Pauw and Mervielde, 2010). It includes two response systems: negative affect and positive affect (Rothbart and Bates, 2006). Negative affect is characterized by irritability, depression, high intensity of negative reactions, and difficulty in appeasement (e.g., anger, fear, frustration, distress owing to one’s limitations, and sadness; Putnam et al., 2008). Children with high levels of negative affect are often accompanied by emotional instability and other adjustment problems, which will directly affect their social interactions, leading to increased behavioral problems, and social maladjustment (Peterson et al., 2018). Negative affect is closely related to children’s poor social adjustment (Taylor et al., 2014; Barone et al., 2019; Acar et al., 2020; Davies et al., 2021). Studies of infants and young children have shown that children with higher levels of anger and frustration in early life tend to exhibit more impulsive and aggressive behaviors and develop poor social relationships and social skills (Jones et al., 2002). Children’s temperament is also closely related to certain sub-social skills. For example, negative affect among infants and toddlers can predict their poor self-regulation (Raikes et al., 2007; Putnam et al., 2008). Qian et al. (2020) investigated two-child families and found that emotionality, activity, reactivity, social inhibition, and concentration among first-born children were significantly correlated with cooperation.

Most of the abovementioned studies have focused on infants and adolescents, and few studies have addressed the relationship between negative affect and social skills in preschool children. Given that preschool years are a critical stage for the development of children’s social interactions and social skills (Kutnick et al., 2007; Maleki et al., 2019), it is meaningful to explore the influence of negative affect on preschool children’s social skills to promote social interactions. In this study, we explored the influence of preschool children’s negative affect on their social skills. Based on the previous studies, we hypothesized that preschool children’s negative affect would be negatively associated with all three indices (cooperation, self-control, and assertion) of their social skills.

Although ample evidence has shown that many children with a high level of negative affect experience a host of social and emotional difficulties, it is also important to stress that not all children with a high level of negative affect will experience problems with social interactions. Several theoretical models have shown that some environmental and individual protective factors can guard against these problems, while certain risk factors can promote them.

According to the developmental systems theory, the development of children’s social skills is influenced by internal (e.g., temperament) and external (e.g., family and school) environmental factors, with children’s internal characteristics dynamically interacting with the external environment for their development (Myers and Pianta, 2008). Since preschool children spend considerable time at daycare, teachers become the primary people at this stage. The attachment theory also stresses that preschool teachers play a crucial role in children’s development during preschool age (Pianta, 1999).

The teacher–child relationship quality refers to the affective nature of children’s interactions with their teachers and can be typically divided into two aspects: teacher–child closeness and teacher–child conflict (Baardstu et al., 2022). Teacher–child closeness is characterized by warm and open communication between teachers and children, which can help children establish a sense of security and belonging, and acts as a protective factor in their development (O’Connor et al., 2011; Verschueren and Koomen, 2012). In contrast, teacher–child conflict is manifested by tense, negative, and hostile communication in the teacher–child relationship, which increases the risk of children’s social maladjustment (Buyse et al., 2011; Coplan et al., 2020). Tensions in the teacher–child relationship also reduce the frequency and quality of teacher–child interactions, thus reducing the opportunities for children to acquire social skills. Some empirical studies have shown that the teacher–child relationship in early childhood years plays an important role in children’s social and emotional competence (Wu et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2020; Paes et al., 2021; Baardstu et al., 2022). For example, Liu et al. (2020) used a cross-lagged analysis and found that toddlers’ teacher–child relationship had a direct effect on their social skills. Baardstu et al. (2022) found that a close teacher–child relationship among 5-year-old children predicted their social competence at 8 years.

There may also be an interaction effect between children’s temperament and the teacher–child relationship on their social skills. That is, the influence of children’s negative affect on their development may be protected by a positive, or intensified by a negative teacher–child relationship. Although few studies have confirmed this conclusion, certain theoretical models or similar studies have suggested that there may be an interaction between the two variables. According to the differential susceptibility model, individuals have different sensitivities to the external environment. Individuals with a susceptible temperament (e.g., negative affect) are more sensitive to both adverse and favorable environments, as compared to their counterparts. Preschool children with a high level of negative affect may perform better in a favorable environment and worse in an adverse environment as compared to typically developing children (Belsky, 1997; Belsky et al., 2007). From this perspective, a conflicted teacher–child relationship is a risk factor that can hinder the development of social skills among children with a high level of negative affect. A close teacher–child relationship may play a moderating role between children’s negative affect and social skills, which can buffer the negative influence of negative affect on children’s social skills. Some empirical studies have revealed similar conclusions. For example, a study of 7-year-old children in Turkey found that highly conflicted student–teacher relationships had a moderating effect on the association between shyness and aggressive behavior. For children with low levels of shyness, the higher level of teacher–child conflict, the more aggressive behaviors they experienced. For children with high levels of shyness, the teacher–child closeness alleviated the maladjustment caused by the shy temperament (Acar et al., 2018). Baardstu et al. (2022) also found that teacher–child closeness had a buffering influence on shy preschool children’s social adjustment difficulties. A study of primary school children found that student–teacher relationships could buffer the negative influence of difficult temperament on their peer interactions (e.g., aggression behaviors and peer victimization; Rudasill et al., 2013). Therefore, it was hypothesized that teacher–child relationships (closeness and conflict) have a moderating effect on the relationship between negative affect and preschool children’s social skills.

Based on the relevant theoretical framework and the existing research, it was determined that children’s negative affect and the teacher–child relationship are important factors affecting their social and emotional development, and key interactive effects may exist. However, most prior studies focused on children’s negative affect on their problem behaviors (Crawford et al., 2011; Affrunti and Woodruff-Borden, 2016; Davies et al., 2021), or other aspects of their temperament (e.g., effort control, inhibition) on their social adjustment (Klein et al., 2018; Zhu J. et al., 2021). Few studies have examined the influence of preschool children’s negative affect on their social skills or the underlying mechanisms between them. Against this background, this study aimed to examine the associations between children’s negative affect, social skills, and teacher–child relationships, and the interactions between these variables. Specifically, the following hypotheses and moderating model (Figure 1) were proposed: children’s negative affect will negatively predict their social skills (Hypothesis 1), teacher–child closeness will alleviate the negative prediction of children’s negative affect on their social skills (Hypothesis 2), and teacher–child conflict will intensify the negative prediction of children’s negative affect on their social skills (Hypothesis 3).

Although previous studies have demonstrated the associations between different components of children’s temperament and social-emotional development, as well as provided meaningful information about the two variables in different contexts (Davies et al., 2021; Zhu J. et al., 2021), the effect of negative affect on children’s social skills has been less explored, and the possible moderating effect of teacher–child relationships remains unexplored. Thus, the primary goal of this study was to examine the associations between preschool children’s negative affect and social skills, and the moderating effect of the teacher–child relationship. The results showed that teacher–child closeness and conflict played moderating roles in the relationship between children’s negative affect and the three indices of social skills (cooperation, self-control, and assertion). The results revealed the underlying mechanisms of preschool children’s negative affect on their social skills.

Several limitations exist in this study. First, the data were all self-reported by mothers and teachers, and there was a lack of data from children. In the future, researchers should also collect preschool children’s opinions of teacher–child relationships and social skills through interviews with the children. Second, according to the theoretical framework, family environmental factors may also have an interaction effect on children’s temperament, while our study only paid attention to the teacher–child relationships. Future studies should include family environment factors to examine the interaction between children’s temperament and those factors on their social and emotional competence. Third, the data were collected in Shanghai, the largest city in China; thus, the generalizability of the findings is limited.

Despite these limitations, the findings have important theoretical and practical implications. First, the results elucidate the links between negative affect and social skills and the role of the teacher–child relationship. The results demonstrated and expanded relevant theory models, such as the attachment theory, the developmental systems theory, and the differential susceptibility model, which help clarify the interaction effect of temperament and external environment on children’s social and emotional development. Second, depending on the context, teacher–child relationships had a protective or an aggravating effect on the development of social skills among children with a high level of negative affect. Therefore, a harmonious and close teacher–child relationship can help children to learn more social skills through positive teacher–child interactions. Teachers should pay more attention to children with a high level of negative affect and improve the quality of their interactions with these children. In addition, schools can implement intervention programs aimed at improving the quality of teacher–child relationships, to help preschool teachers better interact with children and form positive teacher–child relationships. For example, Driscoll and Pianta (2010) developed an intervention program named “Banking Time,” which aimed to change the teacher–child interaction model (e.g., observe children’s behaviors, recognize children’s emotions, and describe children’s behaviors and emotions). This could improve teacher–child relationship quality, foster children’s social skills, and reduce problem behaviors in the classroom (Driscoll and Pianta, 2010; LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2018).

This study revealed an association between preschool children’s negative affect and social skills (cooperation, self-control, and assertion). A higher level of negative affect may lead to a lower level of social skills. The teacher–child relationship moderated the association between negative affect and children’s social skills, with closeness buffering the prediction of negative affect on children’s social skills, while conflict intensifying the prediction of negative affect on children’s social skills.

The raw data used during the current study will be made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Shanghai Normal University. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s), and minor(s)’ legal guardian/next of kin, for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

YW and YL conceived of the presented idea. YW analyzed the data, wrote up the “Materials and methods” and “Results” section, and verified the analytical methods. YW and DH wrote up the first draft. YL, YT, and LZ supervised the findings of this work. All authors discussed the results, contributed to the final manuscript.