Teacher well-being and turnover intentions: Investigating the roles of job resources and job demands.

Abstract

Identifying factors implicated in teachers' well-being and turnover intentions is important for driving research, policy, and practice to better support teachers in their work. This study examined the role of three job resources (autonomy-supportive leadership, relatedness with colleagues and students) and three job demands (autonomy-thwarting leadership, time pressure, disruptive student behaviour) in relation to teacher well-being (subjective vitality, behavioural engagement, professional growth) and turnover intentions. Participants were 426 Australian school teachers. Structural equation modelling was used to examine main associations and interactions among factors. Teachers' characteristics (gender, teaching experience and educational qualification) and personality factors served as controls in all analyses. The job resources were generally positively associated with the well-being factors, whereas time pressure was negatively associated with vitality, but positively associated with behavioural engagement. In addition, relatedness with colleagues and subjective vitality were negatively associated with turnover intentions, whereas the reverse was true for autonomy-thwarting leadership and time pressure. There were no interaction terms retained in the final model. Taken together, findings yield understanding about the salient resources and demands in relation to teachers' well-being and turnover intentions (beyond the role of background characteristics and personality factors).