Work, family enrichment and kindergarten teachers’ occupational commitment: the roles of job satisfaction and emotional intelligence
Article excerpt
ObjectiveThis study examined the psychological mechanism linking work, family enrichment to occupational commitment among kindergarten teachers, with job satisfaction as a mediator and emotional intelligence as a moderator.DesignA cross-sectional survey design was used to test whether job satisfaction mediated the association…
ObjectiveThis study examined the psychological mechanism linking work, family enrichment to occupational commitment among kindergarten teachers, with job satisfaction as a mediator and emotional intelligence as a moderator.DesignA cross-sectional survey design was used to test whether job satisfaction mediated the association between work, family enrichment and occupational commitment and whether emotional intelligence moderated the direct and indirect pathways.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,312 kindergarten teachers in China. Participants completed measures of work, family enrichment, job satisfaction, emotional intelligence, and occupational commitment. Data were analyzed using PROCESS Models 4 and 15 with 5,000 bootstrap samples.ResultsWork, family enrichment positively predicted occupational commitment. Job satisfaction partially mediated this association, indicating that work, family enrichment was related to occupational commitment both directly and indirectly through increased job satisfaction. Emotional intelligence significantly moderated this conditional process: the association between job satisfaction and occupational commitment was stronger among teachers with higher emotional intelligence, whereas the direct association between work, family enrichment and occupational commitment was stronger among teachers with lower emotional intelligence. The conditional indirect effect through job satisfaction was stronger at higher levels of emotional intelligence.ConclusionWork, family enrichment was associated with kindergarten teachers’ occupational commitment through both direct and indirect pathways, and this association differed according to teachers’ emotional intelligence. These findings extend resource-based explanations of occupational commitment in emotionally demanding early childhood education contexts while avoiding causal claims because of the cross-sectional design.