As a Happy Kindergarten Teacher: The Mediating Effect of Happiness Between Role Stress and Turnover Intention

Abstract

Kindergarten teacher turnover is an important topic in education, especially in East Asia. Two approaches, the disease model and positive psychology perspective, are integrated to investigate kindergarten teachers’ turnover intention, and the “happy/productive teacher” hypothesis that happy teachers have lower turnover intention is tested. A comprehensive model that integrates role stress, subjective well-being (SWB), and turnover intention is proposed herein. A mail survey was conducted, consisting of 272 kindergarten teachers in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used for the data analysis. The “happy/productive teacher” concept was supported in that teachers’ SWB has a negative effect on turnover intention. Role stress was found to have a negative effect on SWB and a positive indirect effect on turnover intention completely mediated by SWB. In conclusion, role stress and SWB both have significant effects on turnover intention. However, SWB is a more direct and powerful antecedent than role stress. This study has important theoretical and practical implications for kindergarten teachers’ turnover intention from the positive psychology perspective, and may contribute to the positive education in Asia.