Age Differences
Age may influence the connections between TCR and children’s characteristics, and between children’s different behaviors (Nurmi, 2012). For example, there may be age variations in the patterns of closeness TCR, whereas patterns of conflict TCR may remain consistent across ages (Horn et al., 2021). This could be attributed to teachers placing more emphasis on social emotions when interacting with younger children (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). Younger children have more opportunities to engage with teachers and discuss their feelings, fostering a closer TCR. In contrast, older children might have fewer interactions with teachers and rely more on peer support, potentially affecting the closeness TCR. However, the absence of significant age differences in conflict TCR might be due to younger children having greater difficulties regulating their emotions, leading to a stronger positive correlation between adjustment problems and conflict TCR (Koepke & Harkins, 2008). In contrast, older children’s desire for autonomy might contribute to conflicts with teachers (Rudasill, 2011). Nevertheless, Mejia and Hoglund’s (2016) cross-lagged study did not find age differences in TCR, and the contribution of adjustment problems to TCR remained stable across children of different ages.
Children’s SR develops rapidly with age (Berti & Cigala, 2022), with older children outscoring younger ones on SR measures. Younger children also tend to benefit more from SR interventions compared to older ones (Diamond & Lee, 2011). It has also been observed that age differences moderate the link between SR and mathematics in children (Zhong et al., 2022), as SR tends to improve with age, with inhibitory control and working memory playing crucial roles in mathematics learning (Wang & Sperling, 2020). Differences in young children’s SR can directly impact mathematics.
Children’s SE becomes more pronounced with age (McTaggart et al., 2022). The association between SE and academic achievement is moderated by age, with older children achieving higher academic scores, possibly due to increased exposure to social contexts facilitating learning (Curby et al., 2015). The link between social behavior and language development is also more robust in older children (Slot et al., 2020). Younger children’s mathematics appears to develop separately from their SE (Cameron et al., 2019). There is a bidirectional relationship between children’s SE and language (Slot et al., 2020), but whether this association is moderated by age is still unclear.
Children’s mathematics develops with age (Slot et al., 2020) and associations between children’s mathematics and other variables remain stable with age (Lin & Powell, 2023). However, the moderating effect of age is no longer present in primary school (Hong et al., 2009). Young children’s vocabulary and reading comprehension levels increase significantly with age, with the most notable difference observed in vocabulary (Below et al., 2010).
In sum, the literature highlights the impact of age on these variables while also providing preliminary, albeit inconsistent, evidence of age moderating the relationships between them. However, there is limited systematic evidence regarding whether and how age moderates the relationship between TCR and behavioral development and whether this relationship varies across ages. Therefore, this study aims to explore these interrelationships from the perspective of a moderating variable, hypothesizing that grade plays a moderating role.