Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of children’s emotional intelligence on teacher-child intimacy perceived by childrenand peer acceptance. Methods: The participants were 134 five-year-old children(71 boys, 63 girls) attending daycare centers and kindergarten in Seoul and Gyeong-nam province. Children were interviewed to measure teacher-child intimacy and peer acceptance. Teachers completed rating scales to measure children’s emotional intelligence. Datawere analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, three step mediated regression analysis and a Sobel test. Results: The main results are as follows. first, there were significant positive correlations of teacher-child intimacy, emotional intelligence, and children’s peeracceptance. Second, children’s emotional intelligence had a partial mediating effect on teacher-child intimacy and peer acceptance. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study demonstrates links between early teacher-child relationships and children’s emotional and social development. In orderto promote children’s peer acceptance, it is necessary to build an intimate teacher-child relationship and to improve children’s emotional intelligence basedon that relationship.