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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1513514
This article is part of the Research Topic World Mental Health Day: Mental Health in the Workplace View all articles

The Impact of Work-Family Conflict on Early Childhood Teachers' Occupational Well-Being: The Chain Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment and Job Crafting

Provisionally accepted
Liqun Wang Liqun Wang Xinxin Wang Xinxin Wang Tianqi Qiao Tianqi Qiao *Pingzhi Ye Pingzhi Ye *
  • Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The occupational well-being of early childhood teachers, as a crucial measure of the stability of the early childhood workforce, is increasingly becoming a core topic of interest within the education system. Work-related stressors, particularly work-family conflict, have drawn significant attention for their impact on the occupational well-being of early childhood teachers, becoming a prominent issue in the education field. However, current research rarely explores the relationship between these factors and the underlying mechanisms involved. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between work-family conflict and the occupational well-being of early childhood teachers and the mediating role of psychological empowerment and job crafting. Methods: This study conducted a survey involving 1,200 early childhood teachers from Guangdong Province, China, using personal information forms and four scales. The collected data were processed and analyzed using SPSS 27.0. Results: Work-family conflict showed a significant negative correlation with early childhood teacher's occupational well-being (β = -0.268, p < 0.001). Psychological empowerment (indirect effect size = -0.049) and job crafting (indirect effect size = -0.019) partially mediated the relationship between workfamily conflict and occupational well-being. Furthermore, psychological empowerment and job crafting played a chain mediating role between work-family conflict and occupational well-being (indirect effect size = -0.036).This study reveals the underlying mechanisms by which work-family conflict affects early childhood teachers' occupational well-being. The findings demonstrate that work-family conflict has a direct and negative impact on the occupational well-being of early childhood teachers. Psychological empowerment and job crafting both partially mediate the relationship between workfamily conflict and occupational well-being among early childhood teachers, and they also function in a serial mediating role within this association. The study provides crucial evidence supporting the significant impact of work-related stressors on early childhood teachers' occupational well-being, serving as a reference for policymakers and educators in developing interventions targeting occupational well-being.

    Keywords: work-family conflict, Occupational well-being, psychological empowerment, Job crafting, Early childhood teachers

    Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 10 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Wang, Qiao and Ye. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Tianqi Qiao, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
    Pingzhi Ye, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.