{"title":"Early Childhood Teachers' Work Environment, Perceived Personal Stress, and Professional Commitment in South Korea.","authors":"Sooyeon Byun, Lieny Jeon","doi":"10.1007/s10566-022-09722-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Teachers' professional commitment is essential for providing high-quality early care and education (ECE) to young children. Previous studies suggest that teachers' perceptions of low levels of personal stress and a satisfactory work environment are both likely to be associated with their greater commitment to work.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>The current study examined the incremental validity of work environment as a predictor of professional commitment beyond personal stress perceived by ECE teachers in South Korea. Specifically, we hypothesized that teachers' satisfactory work environment would predict a significant amount of variance in professional commitment beyond personal stress.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Survey data were collected from 322 ECE teachers in center-based programs in Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the professional commitment latent variable. Hierarchical regression models were tested in structural equation modeling with the professional commitment latent variable.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>CFA for professional commitment demonstrated that a one-factor model was the best solution. The final model explained 40% of the variance in professional commitment (RMSEA = .067; CFI = .906). Findings indicated the incremental validity of work environment in predicting professional commitment beyond personal stress.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The current findings emphasize the importance of teachers' experiences around having a satisfactory work environment and personal stress, either job-related or not, to retain teachers in ECE settings long-term. Program and policy level support to promote teachers' well-being in their personal lives as well as professional lives may be critical to improve teachers' professional commitment.</p>","PeriodicalId":47479,"journal":{"name":"Child & Youth Care Forum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9734881/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Child & Youth Care Forum","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09722-9","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Teachers' professional commitment is essential for providing high-quality early care and education (ECE) to young children. Previous studies suggest that teachers' perceptions of low levels of personal stress and a satisfactory work environment are both likely to be associated with their greater commitment to work.
Objective: The current study examined the incremental validity of work environment as a predictor of professional commitment beyond personal stress perceived by ECE teachers in South Korea. Specifically, we hypothesized that teachers' satisfactory work environment would predict a significant amount of variance in professional commitment beyond personal stress.
Methods: Survey data were collected from 322 ECE teachers in center-based programs in Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the professional commitment latent variable. Hierarchical regression models were tested in structural equation modeling with the professional commitment latent variable.
Results: CFA for professional commitment demonstrated that a one-factor model was the best solution. The final model explained 40% of the variance in professional commitment (RMSEA = .067; CFI = .906). Findings indicated the incremental validity of work environment in predicting professional commitment beyond personal stress.
Conclusions: The current findings emphasize the importance of teachers' experiences around having a satisfactory work environment and personal stress, either job-related or not, to retain teachers in ECE settings long-term. Program and policy level support to promote teachers' well-being in their personal lives as well as professional lives may be critical to improve teachers' professional commitment.
期刊介绍:
Child & Youth Care Forum is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary publication that welcomes submissions – original empirical research papers and theoretical reviews as well as invited commentaries – on children, youth, and families. Contributions to Child & Youth Care Forum are submitted by researchers, practitioners, and clinicians across the interrelated disciplines of child psychology, early childhood, education, medical anthropology, pediatrics, pediatric psychology, psychiatry, public policy, school/educational psychology, social work, and sociology as well as government agencies and corporate and nonprofit organizations that seek to advance current knowledge and practice. Child & Youth Care Forum publishes scientifically rigorous, empirical papers and theoretical reviews that have implications for child and adolescent mental health, psychosocial development, assessment, interventions, and services broadly defined. For example, papers may address issues of child and adolescent typical and/or atypical development through effective youth care assessment and intervention practices. In addition, papers may address strategies for helping youth overcome difficulties (e.g., mental health problems) or overcome adversity (e.g., traumatic stress, community violence) as well as all children actualize their potential (e.g., positive psychology goals). Assessment papers that advance knowledge as well as methodological papers with implications for child and youth research and care are also encouraged.