Dual mediating effects of job stress and gratitude on the relationship between organizational incivility and life satisfaction of child-care teachers: a moderated mediation role of grit

Abstract

Introduction. Child-care teachers who deal with colleagues, young children and parents are under a lot of stress. In addition, incivility at workplace, which are invisible non-social behaviors, further aggravate stress. Research is needed to relieve stress caused by such organizational incivility. This study tried to elucidate the role of grit in effects of job stress and gratitude on the relationship between organizational incivility and life satisfaction of child-care teachers. Study participants and methods. Subjects of this study were 323 teachers who worked at daycare centers located in S, A, and C cities in Korea. there were 97.8% females and 2.2% males. The most common age group was in the 40s (38.8%), followed by the 50s (24.7%) and 30s (19.9%). For analysis, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, and correlation analysis were performed using SPSS 25.0. Moderated mediation effect was analyzed using PROCESS macro 3.5.3. Results. First, there were significant correlations among organizational incivility, job stress, gratitude, grit, and life satisfaction. Gratitude and life satisfaction had the highest correlation (r = 0.495, p < 0.01), and followed by the correlation between job stress and organizational incivility (r = 0.436, p < 0.01). Second, a moderated mediation effect of grit on the path from organizational incivility to life satisfaction via job stress and gratitude was verified. The conditional indirect effect of grit on the relationship of organizational incivility → job stress → gratitude → life satisfaction was all significant when grit was low (-.5266, -.0933 ~ -.0207), average (.0000, -.1156 ~ -.0396), and high (.5266, -.1515 ~ -.0471). Conclusions. Therefore, we found grit’s moderated mediation effect which increases gratitude and life satisfaction of child-care teachers with high incivility and job stress at workplace. These research results are significant in that they provided an alternative for improving the quality of childcare services in a situation where life satisfaction of childcare teachers has a high causal relationship with the quality of childcare services. In addition, since the role of grit was verified in this study result, it will be possible to contribute to improving the life satisfaction of childcare teachers and improving childcare service by utilizing the enhancement of grit.