The relationship between job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers during the COVID-19: The moderation of perceived organizational support

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

COVID-19 poses great challenges for preschool teachers in China, which will increase the level of job stress and job burnout, and have an impact on the relationship between job stress, job burnout, and perceived organizational support (POS). However, few studies have examined trilateral relationships, especially the role of POS concerning job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers.

OBJECTIVE:

This study aimed to investigate the relationship among the three variables of job burnout, job stress, and POS, as well as explore the moderating effects of POS between job stress and job burnout.

METHODS:

A cross-sectional study was conducted among preschool teachers in six provinces of China. A total of 408 preschool teachers completed a self-report questionnaire, including three scales that measured job burnout, job stress, and POS respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to examine the relationship among variables.

RESULTS:

The results showed that job burnout among Chinese preschool teachers was at a medium level during the COVID-19 pandemic. Job stress was positively related to job burnout, and the POS was negatively related to job burnout. Additionally, POS moderated the relationship between job stress and job burnout and alleviated the adverse effects of job stress on the job burnout of preschool teachers.

CONCLUSION:

POS can play a moderating role between job stress and job burnout of Chinese preschool teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

Job burnout perceived organizational support (POS)job stress moderating effect preschool teachers the COVID-19 pandemic

1 Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has been considered a global major public health event since its outbreak in 2019, and it has caused huge negative impacts on people in multiple aspects such as making people experience a lot of fear and anxiety [1]. This sense of panic can easily be carried into the workplace, coupled with high-intensity work input, which in turn contributes to job stress and job burnout. Correspondingly, COVID-19 also has affected the working conditions of preschool teachers, causing them to pay more attention to children’s health and adapt to online teaching at home, resulting in a great workload and high job stress [2, 3]. Besides, early childhood educators were generally underpaid and had unstable incomes [4], and financial pressure and uncertainty, along with public health emergencies, caused the closure of some kindergartens, and teachers were also at risk of lower wages or even unemployment [5]. In addition, depressive symptoms and other mental health conditions of preschool teachers also increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic [6], which further exacerbated emotional exhaustion and burnout among them. In fact, teachers were members of the organization of schools, and schools can provide teachers with emotional support. When teachers had a positive experience with the support provided by schools, they were more likely to increase organizational commitment, thereby regulating their negative emotions brought about by work [7, 8].

Job burnout is a condition precipitated by prolonged susceptibility to stress. Studies found that the prominent features of job burnout incorporating low spirits and lack of emotional resources, i.e. emotional exhaustion [9]; loss of idealism through negative and detached reactions to others, i.e. depersonalization [10]; and a decreased sense of workability and performance, i.e. reduced personal accomplishment [11]. While Maslach et al. [12] believed that job burnout was a state caused by a long-term mismatch between the employee and the job, and the factors that lead to job burnout might come from themselves, such as biological cortisol and psychological personality traits [13]. Besides, job burnout might also come from the external environment, where stress is considered to be one of the strongest predictors. When individuals experience negative emotions and strongly disagree with their careers under such stress, they are more likely to leave their jobs. For example, workers in nursing and tourism have a strong sense of job burnout due to high pressure, resulting in high turnover intentions [14, 15].

Teaching is a stressful profession. Studies showed preschool teachers [16], special education teachers [17], and university teachers [18], all face job stress such as eustress and distress, and adopt susceptibility or resilience strategies to manage stress. In China, affected by the epidemic prevention and control policies, teachers in kindergarten are facing physical and mental health problems, and online teaching is more prone to cause work-family conflicts, which will further bring these teachers greater work pressure and burnout [19, 20]. Madigan & Kim [21] pointed out that job burnout will not only affect teachers’ well-being and work engagements but also negatively affect students’ academic achievements and motivation. As job burnout reduces, teachers are likely to maintain teaching enthusiasm, increase job satisfaction, improve mental health, and feel a strong career calling [22]. And this positive working state will also benefit students. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the factors that reduce teachers’ job burnout to improve the happiness of teachers and students.

Perceived Organizational Support (POS hereafter) is identified as a positive resource to reduce job burnout. Research reported that employees tend to perform better at work when they feel positively supported and affirmed by the organization, especially in the special background of the pandemic [23]. In addition, even though employees encountered difficulties, once they knew they could seek support from the organization, the negative impact of job stress would be decreased, and the sense of belonging and resilience would be enhanced [24]. Several empirical studies have examined that POS can mediate the relationship between job stress and job burnout in some professions [25, 26]. However, considering cultural and professional differences, the phenomenon of job burnout among preschool teachers may be different in China during COVID-19 and needs further investigation. At present, China’s preschool education is in a period of reforming and pursuing high-quality development. With the continuous improvement of preschool teachers’ professional level, children’s parents, kindergartens, and even society have higher expectations of them [27]. At the same time, the existing insufficient support from the education system and society makes it difficult for teachers to adjust to the work pressure that they face in kindergartens. Besides, the promulgation of the Two-Child Policy and Three-Child Policy led to a shortage of preschool teachers in a short time, increasing their job burdens [28]. Coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has further aggravated the job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers. Based on these practical considerations, this study aims to explore the relationship among preschool teachers’ job stress, POS, and job burnout in Chinese society, and to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the working conditions of Chinese preschool teachers.This study will serve as the basis for future research on the quality improvement of preschool teachers’ professional development.

1.1 The relationship between job stress and job burnout

Job stress caused by work maladaptation can bring negative emotions [29]. Job burnout is a kind of fatigue syndrome affected by long-term persistent pressure, as well as becoming an individual mental health issue [10]. According to the conservation of resources theory (COR theory), individuals will strive to maintain and protect the existing valuable resources while regarding loss as an external threat, so the resource losses and conflicts caused by stress require individuals to adjust themselves to adapt to the situation [30]. This theory can interpret the process of job burnout from the perspective of resource imbalance: to cope with job stress, individuals will invest inherent resources, such as time, knowledge, money, etc. Once inputs could not get or only got negligible returns for a long time, job burnout would occur. Besides, Halbesleben et al. [31] noted that the acquisition of psychological resources affects individuals’ perception of resource signals, further impacting their strategies and outcomes for coping with problems. Job stress will consume individual psychological resources and affect the perception of available signals of resources. When individuals perceive that they are unable to obtain resources to complete jobs, they are prone to job burnout.

In particular, several empirical studies during COVID-19 investigated different occupational fields, such as police officers [32], clinical nurses [33], and teachers [34], all of which showed a significant positive correlation between job stress and job burnout. Furthermore, a previous study also verified that the availability of coping resources can divide the regulating relationship between job stress and job burnout into three steps: firstly, regulating job stress and emotional exhaustion; then, regulating emotional exhaustion and depersonalization; finally, adjusting the depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment [35]. As for faculty groups, some factors such as the physical and mental burden caused by job stress that produces job burnout will have a greater negative impact on them[36]. Since job stress of teachers might bring about the loss of psychological resources, then affect the individual motivation and behavior generation mechanism, and ultimately lead to low self-efficacy and high job burnout, this study proposed the first hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1 (H1). There is a positive correlation between job stress and job burnout among preschool teachers.

1.2 The relationship between POS and job burnout

POS is employees’ overall perception of whether the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being [37, 38]. Social support theory indicates that social support is a protective factor for individual mental health, and individuals can better cope with stress when they are perceived to have been supported. As a type of social support, POS can also relieve stress and reduce job burnout of employees. The job demand-resource model (JD-R model) reported that job resources, such as social support, decision-making autonomy, and development opportunities, can effectively cushion the job burnout brought by excessive job demands. In short, it can offset the negative impact of job demands by supplying psychological resources, and to avoid the generation of job burnout. Through a supportive work environment, POS can reduce employees’ job stress and form more positive psychological capital [39].

Previous studies have indicated POS and job burnout might have a significant association in different career areas. Specifically, Cheng & O-Yang [40] argued that POS regulated the relationship between job crafting, job burnout, and satisfaction for hotel employees; Zeng et al. [41] pointed out that POS might not only directly affect job burnout of police but also indirectly affect job burnout through other factors (such as job satisfaction); Grubic et al. [42] and Morin et al. [43] also found that POS can mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 and negatively predict academic burnout among students and postdocs; but once there was no POS, it would lead to difficulties in resource coordination and negative team sentiment, which might dampen young people’s academic enthusiasm and create a sense of helplessness. Moreover, studies that are specific to teacher groups have shown that POS can be a negative predictor of job burnout formation. If teachers have a positive cognitive experience of POS in schools, they will have stronger professional beliefs and career satisfaction, as well as adjust the negative emotions to relieve job burnout; Otherwise, without POS, they are more likely to suffer from job burnout [25, 44]. Based on this, this study put forward the second hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2 (H2). There is a negative correlation between POS and job burnout among preschool teachers.

1.3 The mediating role of POS

POS includes emotional, instrumental, informational, and behavioral support from colleagues, supervisors, and others, which can stimulate employees’ organizational commitment [45]. Organizational support theory states that employees attribute the stressful environment to the lack of POS when they believe that various stressors (such as work overload, role conflict, etc) can be controlled by the external environment. So, as stress increases, individuals will expect more organizational support than cope with job burnout by themselves. At this time, the reduction of POS will further intensify the job burnout of employees, because the low level of POS cannot meet their social-emotional needs [25]. The mediating effect of POS among multiple variables has been confirmed by some empirical studies. For example, Xu [46] noted that POS can mediate the relationship between teacher-researcher role conflict and job burnout (reduced personal accomplishment) of university teachers. Besides, the meta-analysis of Rhoades & Eisenberger [47] showed that different types of beneficial treatments received by employees (i.e., fairness, supervisor support, organizational rewards, and good job conditions) were related to POS. Correspondingly, POS was associated with employee-friendly outcomes (e.g. positive emotions) and organization (e.g. withdrawal behaviors). Therefore, POS might play an important role in mediating antecedents and consequences variables related to the attitudes or behaviors of the organization [40].

JD-R model reveals that each job has factors affecting the physical and mental health as well as the working conditions of employees, which can be classified as job demands and job resources. Job demands require continuous personal cognitive and emotional investment, which will take physical and psychological costs. Factors related to job demands are the main cause of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, or reduced personal accomplishment. When the individual’s job demands increase, their resource consumption will increase, leading to resource depletion and psychological experience of exhaustion, fatigue, or boredom; On the contrary, job resources can promote the realization of work goals, reduce physical and psychological costs, and promote personal growth. Factors related to job resources can support individuals and mitigate the effects of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment [48, 49]. Therefore, job demands and job resources correspond to the health impairment process and motivational process respectively. Among them, job stress is a form of job demand, which is a risk factor for job burnout; POS belongs to the type of job resources, that plays a protective role in alleviating job burnout [50]. As for preschool teachers, POS will encourage them to believe that they can get support from kindergartens in the face of job stress and work-family conflicts, thereby enhancing organizational identity and actively coping with negative feelings and job burnout [51, 52]. Since POS might buffer the effect of job stress on job burnout, another hypothesis was proposed:

Hypothesis 3 (H3). POS plays a moderating role between job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers.

Based on the above hypotheses, the conceptual model of this study was presented in Fig. 1. Although existing studies have proved the role of POS in the relationship between job stress and job burnout [25, 53], the researchers still believe that these studies provide a preliminary hypothesis basis for this study. Besides, the target group of this study is preschool teachers, who have special working conditions and can further enrich the existing theory. Considering the huge impact of COVID-19 on all walks of life, this study will reflect the job burnout situation of Chinese preschool teachers in the context of the epidemic. In theory, it can deepen the understanding of the complex psychological mechanism between job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers and strive for theoretical innovation. In practice, it can also provide enlightenment for policymakers and managers to intervene in the occurrence of job burnout in preschool teachers. Therefore, this study aims to (a) explore the relationship between job stress, POS, and job burnout based on the JD-R model, and (b) examine whether POS plays a moderating role between job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers.

Fig. 1

A conceptual model diagram of organizational support in the relationship between job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers.

2 Methods

2.1 Participants

In this study, the participants were preschool teachers from six provinces of China, and 446 questionnaires were collected. After data cleaning, a total of 408 participants remained. The basic information was as follows. The educational level of participants was selected into junior college degree or below (19.1%), bachelor’s degree (64.2%), and master’s degree or above (16.7%). 19.1% (N = 78) of preschool teachers had a junior college degree or below, 64.2% (N = 262) had a bachelor’s degree, and 16.7% (N = 68) had a master’s degree or above. When inspecting the age of the participants, 66.7% (N = 272) of those reported were at the age below 30 years old, 21.1% (N = 86) of those reported were at the age between 31 to 40 years old, 8.8% (N = 36) of those reported were at the age of 41 to 50 years old, and the rest of the participants (N = 14; 3.4%) reported were above 50 years old. As for teaching tenure, 55.6% (N = 227) had 1–5 years of teaching experience, 25.0% (N = 102) had 6–10 years of teaching experience, 8.9% (N = 36) had 11–15 years of teaching experience, and the rest of of the participants (N = 43; 10.5%) had above 15 years of teaching experience. Additionally, 1.7% (N = 7) participants had a monthly income below 2000 yuan, 59.3% (N = 242) participants had a monthly income of 2001–4000 yuan, 30.4% (N = 124) participants had a monthly income of 4001–6000 yuan, and the rest of participants (N = 8.6%; 35) had monthly income above 6000 yuan. Last, of all participants, 69.1% (N = 282) came from public kindergartens, and 30.9% (N = 126) came from private kindergartens. More detailed information was shown in Table 1.

Table 1
Demographic description of the participants(N = 408)

Demographics Number (%)

Educational Level Junior college or below 78(19.1)

Bachelor 262(64.2)

Master or above 68(16.7)

Age Below 30 years old 272(66.7)

31–40 years old 86(21.1)

41–50 years old 36(8.8)

Above 50 years old 14(3.4)

Teaching Tenure 1–5 years 227(55.6)

6–10 years 102(25.0)

11–15 years 36(8.9)

Above 15 years 43(10.5)

Monthly Income Below 2000 yuan 7(1.7)

2001–4000 yuan 242(59.3)

4001–6000 yuan 124(30.4)

Above 6000 yuan 35(8.6)

Kindergarten Attribute Public 282(69.1)

Private 126(30.9)

Demographics	Number (%)
Educational Level	Junior college or below	78(19.1)
	Bachelor	262(64.2)
	Master or above	68(16.7)
Age	Below 30 years old	272(66.7)
	31–40 years old	86(21.1)
	41–50 years old	36(8.8)
	Above 50 years old	14(3.4)
Teaching Tenure	1–5 years	227(55.6)
	6–10 years	102(25.0)
	11–15 years	36(8.9)
	Above 15 years	43(10.5)
Monthly Income	Below 2000 yuan	7(1.7)
	2001–4000 yuan	242(59.3)
	4001–6000 yuan	124(30.4)
	Above 6000 yuan	35(8.6)
Kindergarten Attribute	Public	282(69.1)
	Private	126(30.9)

2.2 Procedures

All procedures performed in the study involving human participants followed the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The research was conducted with the permission of the Academic Ethics Committee of the institution in which the researcher was. And study implementation was supported by informed consent from kindergarten principals and preschool teachers. In return, we gave all participants professional training in mental health. The study was available from September 1 until September 30, 2022, for one month. Due to the impact of the COVID-19, the whole process was conducted online. Researchers first contacted the local education administrative departments and kindergarten principals and sent 446 electronic questionnaires to preschool teachers through them. The electronic questionnaire was preceded by an informed consent form, and participants could voluntarily opt in and out of withdrawal from this study. It took about 20 minutes to fill out the whole questionnaire. Once data collection was finalized, researchers downloaded the data into the Excel sheet and transferred it to the SPSS. After sorting out the data, and eliminating invalid questionnaires, such as incomplete answering, finally, 408 validated questionnaires were obtained, with a 91.5% effective recovery rate.

2.3 Instruments

2.3.1 Job Burnout

The Job Burnout Scale was developed by Maslach et al. [12]. This scale included 22 items with 3 dimensions:1) Emotional Exhaustion measured with 9 items (e.g.“I feel emotionally drained from my work”); 2) Depersonalization measured with 5 items (e.g.“I feel that I treat children as if they were impersonal objects”); 3) Reduced Personal Accomplishment measured with 8 items (e.g.“I feel I’m positively influencing other people’s lives through my work”), which were rated on a 7-point Likert scale from “never” to “every day". Higher scores indicate a higher level of job burnout. The Chinese version of the job burnout scale’s reliability and validity have been demonstrated by previous studies [25]. The total Cronbach’s α coefficient of the current study was 0.95, and each dimension of Cronbach’s α coefficient ranged from 0.94 to 0.96. The validity of the three-dimension scale was χ²/df = 3.56, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.86, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.93, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07.

2.3.2 Job Stress

The Chinese version Preschool Teachers Job Stress Scale was developed by Alatan & Liu [54]. This scale contained 18 items with 4 dimensions: 1) Job difficulty and challenge measured with 8 items (e.g. “There is no sense of accomplishment at work"); 2) Job responsibility and remuneration measured with 4 items (e.g. “The work is trivial and complicated, and the workload is heavy"); 3) Job Strength measured with 3 items (e.g. “It’s too tired to talk too much"); 4) Management System and Career Development measured with 3 items (e.g. “There are unreasonable rules and regulations in kindergartens"), which were rated on a 5-point Likert scale from “no stress at all” to“very stressful". The higher the scores on the scale, the higher the levels of preschool teachers’ job stress. The scale showed good reliability and validity in the previous study [55]. The total Cronbach’s α coefficient of the current study was 0.94, and each dimension of Cronbach’s α coefficient ranged from 0.86 to 0.97. The validity of the four-dimension scale was χ²/df = 4.67, CFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.88, and RMSEA = 0.08.

2.3.3 POS

The Chinese Version Perceived Organizational Support Scale was developed by Ling et al. [56]. This scale contained 24 items with 3 dimensions: 1) Work Support measured with 10 items (e.g.“The kindergarten can notice my excellent performance”); 2) Interest Care measured with 7 items (e.g. “The kindergarten thinks that I am a talent and the value of leaving me is very great”); 3) Value Identity measured with 7 items (e.g. “The kindergarten will reward me for my work outside of job”), which were rated on a 5-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The higher the score, the stronger the organizational support perception of preschool teachers. The existing study has testified to the scale’s reliability and validity [57]. The total Cronbach’s α coefficient of the current study was 0.91, and each dimension of Cronbach’s α coefficient ranged from 0.88 to 0.94. The validity of this three-dimension scale was χ²/df = 2.88, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92, and RMSEA = 0.06.

2.4 Data analysis

In this study, the descriptive statistics of SPSS 26.0 were used to analyze preschool teachers’ job stress, job burnout, and POS including means and standard deviations. Besides, the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis in SPSS were used to test the association between the variables. Moreover, to test whether POS plays a moderating role between job stress and job burnout, the moderating effect was calculated using a bootstrapping procedure of 5,000 samples via SPSS [58].

3 Results

3.1 Common method deviation test

To avoid common method bias, procedural control was adopted in this study, such as filling in the questionnaire anonymously, using the same instructions, and ordering the scale questions out of order [59, 60]. Harman’s single factor test was used to carry out a common method bias test on the collected data. The results showed that there were 15 factors with characteristic roots greater than 1, and the variance interpretation rate of the largest factor was 31.358%, which was less than 40% of the judgment criterion. Therefore, there is no significant common method bias in this study.

3.2 Description, and Correlation Analysis

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were conducted on job stress, POS, and job burnout. The mean, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients of each variable can be seen in Table 2.

Table 2
Description and correlation of main variables

Dimensions Mean±SD 1 2 3 4 5

1. Job Stress 2.98±0.61 1

2. POS 3.18±0.70 –0.472^ 1

3. Emotional Exhaustion 4.13±1.13 0.548^ –0.564^ 1

4. Depersonalization 3.28±1.28 0.539^ –0.531^ 0.649^ 1

5. Reduced Personal Accomplishment 3.02±1.43 0.543^ –0.602^ 0.755^ 0.790^ 1

Dimensions	Mean±SD	1	2	3	4	5
1. Job Stress	2.98±0.61	1
2. POS	3.18±0.70	–0.472^**	1
3. Emotional Exhaustion	4.13±1.13	0.548^**	–0.564^**	1
4. Depersonalization	3.28±1.28	0.539^**	–0.531^**	0.649^**	1
5. Reduced Personal Accomplishment	3.02±1.43	0.543^**	–0.602^**	0.755^**	0.790^**	1

Note:^**p < 0.01, SD is the standard deviation.

The results showed that job stress had significant positive correlations with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment of preschool teachers (r = 0.548, p < 0.01; r = 0.539, p < 0.01 and r = 0.543, p < 0.01, respectively). Additionally, POS was negative with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment of preschool teachers (r = –0.564, p < 0.01; r = –0.531, p < 0.01 and r = –0.602, p < 0.01, respectively). Finally, job stress was negatively correlated with POS (r = –0.472, p < 0.01).

3.3 Testing the Moderating Role of POS

In this study, the method adopted by James & Brett [61] to test the moderating effect was used. Since both the independent variable (job stress) and the moderating variable (POS) are continuous variables, the hierarchical regression method is adopted to test the moderating effect of POS on job stress and job burnout, and the entry method of each layer of variables is forced input.

To eliminate collinearity, we first center the independent and moderating variables respectively. Then, the product term of the independent and moderating variables was constructed. Meanwhile, the basic demographic variables (including age, educational level, professional background, teaching tenure, monthly incomes, kindergarten attributes, and kindergarten location) were included as the control variables. Centralization minimizes the correlation between the product term of the independent variables and the initial underlying variables of the regulating variables. As shown in Table 3, the main effect of job stress in this study was significant (β= 0.249, t = 6.819, p < 0.001), which means job stress of preschool teachers can significantly positively predict job burnout. Besides, the main effect of POS was also significant (β= –0.307, t = –8.261, p < 0.001), so POS can significantly negatively predict job burnout. What’s more, the regression coefficient of the interaction term (Job Stress*POS) and the change of ΔR² were all significant (β= –0.132, t = –4.430, p < 0.001; ΔR² = 0.017, p < 0.001) after the interaction term was added to the equation. Therefore, POS can significantly moderate the relationship between job stress and job burnout among preschool teachers in this study.

Table 3
The results of moderating effect analysis

Outcome Variable:

Job Burnout

β t

Control Variable:

Age –0.351 –7.878^*

Educational Level –0.098 –2.943^

Professional Backgrounds 0.001 0.031

Teaching Tenure 0.184 4.327^*

Monthly Income –0.145 –4.230^*

Kindergarten Attribute –0.179 –5.605^***

Kindergarten Location –0.070 –2.163^*

Main effect:

Job Stress 0.249 6.819^*

POS –0.307 –8.261^*

Moderating effect:

Job Stress*POS –0.132 –4.430^***

ΔR ² = 0.017^***

	Outcome Variable:
Control Variable:
Age	–0.351	–7.878^***
Educational Level	–0.098	–2.943^**
Professional Backgrounds	0.001	0.031
Teaching Tenure	0.184	4.327^***
Monthly Income	–0.145	–4.230^***
Kindergarten Attribute	–0.179	–5.605^***
Kindergarten Location	–0.070	–2.163^*
Main effect:
Job Stress	0.249	6.819^***
POS	–0.307	–8.261^***
Moderating effect:
Job Stress*POS	–0.132	–4.430^***
ΔR ² = 0.017^***

Note:^*p < 0.05,^**p < 0.01,^***p < 0.001.

To explore the interaction between job stress and POS on job burnout, this study classified the sample with the mean score of POS minus one standard deviation as a low group (M-1SD) and the sample with the mean score of POS plus one standard deviation as a high group (M + 1SD), and the slope tests were conducted respectively. As shown in Fig. 2, the positive prediction slope of job stress on job burnout presented by preschool teachers with a high level of POS (simple = 0.51, p < 0.001) was significantly lower than that of preschool teachers with a low level of POS (simple = 0.81, p < 0.001). This indicates that the higher the score of POS, the smaller the positive predictive effect of job stress on job burnout. Hence, POS can effectively alleviate the adverse effects of job stress on the job burnout of preschool teachers.

Fig. 2

The moderating effect of POS on job stress and job burnout for preschool teachers.

4 Discussion

While people have been aware of the problem of job burnout among preschool teachers, little attention has been paid to its internal mechanisms, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is unique in that it used the JD-R model originally proposed by Demerouti et al. [49] to consider the internal mechanism of job burnout formation and the interaction of job stress and POS among preschool teachers during the period of the pandemic.

Firstly, this study found that the job burnout of preschool teachers in China scored 3.57 points out of 7 points during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was at a medium level. And the scores in three dimensions were as follows: emotional exhaustion > depersonalization > reduced personal achievement, which was consistent with the research of Wang et al. [62] on Chinese samples. In this study, preschool teachers scored higher on job burnout compared to the scores (3.08) obtained from preschool teachers in Athens, Greece by Koulierakis et al. [63]. The higher levels of job burnout suffered by preschool teachers may be related to heavy workloads, poor social support systems, and occupational commitment during the pandemic. Previous studies have found that due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, traditional curriculum and work patterns in kindergarten have been turned upside down and online work has become the norm, which has led to physical and mental health problems, high work burdens, long average working hours, and high willingness to quit for preschool teachers [64, 65]. Furthermore, preschool teachers in China receive less effective social support, resulting in far fewer opportunities and lower quality of professional development than primary and secondary school teachers [66]. Moreover, because of the lack of social recognition and respect, Chinese preschool teachers are more vulnerable than others in lacking job security, especially those in private kindergartens with low salaries, poor welfare benefits, and a high unemployment rate [67].

Secondly, this study indicated that the job stress scored of preschool teachers is 2.98, which is higher than that of a similar study (scored 2.51) using the same scale [68]. This high job stress is caused by the special social background of the participants at the time of the survey. And the job stress was positively correlated with job burnout in preschool teachers, which was coherent with the previous studies [69, 70]. JD-R model proposed that job stress as a job demand can deplete employees’ physical and mental resources, leading to emotional exhaustion and job detachment. For preschool teachers, on the one hand, children in kindergarten are young, and they need early educators to pay more patience, love, and responsibility [71], which may put more pressure on them. Besides, as preschool teachers move to online work during the pandemic, in addition to adapting to the new teaching method, they also have to spend more time focusing on the health of their children, which increases job burnout over time [72]. On the other hand, preschool teachers generally lack the experience and competence to face complicated tasks, especially in the preparation of distance teaching and learning. In a tense working environment during the COVID-19 outbreak, they have to pay attention to pandemic preparedness while maintaining high-quality interaction with children, responding to inspections by kindergarten and school district leaders, communicating with parents, and maintaining interpersonal relationships with colleagues [73, 74], which could easily cause their burnout to surge.

In addition, this study found a negative correlation between POS and job burnout in preschool teachers, which was also consistent with existing studies [41, 53]. JD-R model considers POS as a protective job resource, which blocks the negative effects of job stress towards job burnout. Once an individual lacks the protection of job resources (POS), the negative effects of job demand are further amplified [46]. Specifically, the impact of POS on job burnout has two manifestations: On the one hand, POS can exert its main effects to directly reduce job burnout. For example, Anomneze et al. [75] found a negative effect of organizational support on the two dimensions of job burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization). On the other hand, POS can also play as a buffer, helping to reduce occupational tension, decrease the negative impact of stressful events, and buffer the correlation between citizenship behavior and job burnout [76]. Whether the main effect or the buffering effects, POS may effectively prevent the generation of job burnout in preschool teachers as a key protective factor associated with job burnout.

Finally, this research further confirmed that POS can moderate the relationship between job stress and job burnout in preschool teachers. JD-R model indicates that the interaction between job demands and job resources has an impact on individual health, and POS as job resources can buffer the negative effect of job demands [77]. Although the existing study has pointed out that work motivation, as an internal protective factor, can play a mediating role between job stressors and job burnout [78]. But in the particular context of COVID-19, where people generally face huge health problems and work-family conflicts, they require more POS to help regulate the negative impact of stress on work performance [79]. For teachers, POS can help them better cope with teaching pressure and maintain their physical and mental health, thus reducing the impact of job burnout. The existing study has also examined that job burnout becomes more severe as individual job stress increases, but once they can perceive sufficient organizational or social support, job burnout will be weakened [80]. Conversely, when there is a lack of organizational support, individuals may struggle to gain recognition from the organization or others, and then the influence of job stress on job burnout will be further exacerbated, even leading to a loss of sense of values and security. Therefore, POS plays an important moderating role in alleviating the relationship between job burnout and job stress among preschool teachers during the epidemic.

5 Limitations and recommendations for future research

There were some limitations in this study. On the one hand, the questionnaire data on job stress, POS, and job burnout in this study were all collected from preschool teachers and the responses may be potentially influenced by external factors (e.g. the environment of COVID-19) and internal factors (e.g. filled-in psychological concerns). Since this study collected all the cross-sectional data from preschool teachers at once, it cannot avoid the effect of homogeneity error and prevent the establishment of causal relationships among the variables. Therefore, it is possible to track in future studies to test whether changes in participants’ perception of POS and job stress have a sustained effect on job burnout increase the persuasiveness of the results, and reduce methodological errors through front-to-back comparisons. As for the evaluation of the three variables in this study was carried out by self-reporting, future studies could try to collect evaluations of preschool teachers by different subjects such as kindergarten principals and children’s parents, which can be investigated to eliminate common method variance in the follow-up study. In particular, based on the findings and limits in the current study, it can provide support and inspiration for us to conduct large-scale studies in the future, and promote the job well-being of preschool teachers by continuously paying attention to their working environment.

On the other hand, this study has only investigated Chinese preschool teachers and found that POS played a moderating role between job stress and job burnout. However, considering the cultural differences, the findings obtained in the Chinese sample alone do not necessarily reflect the same patterns of preschool teachers in other countries, so more cross-cultural studies are still needed to verify the relationship between those variables. What’s more, based on the JD-R model, this study conducted a study on the job burnout of preschool teachers and its influencing factors. Restricted by the researcher’s time and conditions, this study only focused on the impact of job stress (as an independent variable) and POS (as a moderating variable) on job burnout(as a dependent variable), but lacked attention to more psychological resources (e.g. optimism, resilience, emotional management, and emotional labor), and did not consider the mediating factors such as individual attitudes toward work or work motivation, so the internal mechanisms of job burnout explored was relatively simple. More variables need to be introduced to deeply and explicitly explain the internal mechanisms of job burnout.

6 Conclusion

In this study, the researchers found it urgent to pay more attention to the phenomenon of job burnout among Chinese preschool teachers, especially in special times like COVID-19. Job stress was positively related to job burnout, POS was negatively associated with job burnout, and POS functioned as a moderating role between job stress and job burnout of preschool teachers. Given the importance of POS, policymakers and managers are supposed to implement relevant interventions to support preschool teachers and improve their salary level as well as social status; Additionally, it can also create a more relaxing and harmonious working atmosphere, strengthen the construction of organizational culture, improve humanistic care for preschool teachers, and reduce their job stress and job burnout, as well as protect their physical and mental health and job well-being.

Ethical statement

Not applicable

Informed Consent

The work described has not been submitted elsewhere for publication, and all the authors mentioned in the manuscript have agreed to authorship, read and approved the manuscript, and given consent for submission and subsequent publication of the manuscript. The manuscript will not be submitted elsewhere until the editorial process is completed.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Appreciation is expressed to the kindergarten principals, and preschool teachers, for supporting this research.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This research was funded by state-sponsored Postdoctoral Researcher Program (GZC20230923) and supported by the first-class discipline funds of Education of Central China Normal University (5000-30101240301). Also supported by 2023 Central University Basic Research Expenses (Humanities and Social Sciences) Youth Academic Innovation Team Project “Language Cognition and inclusive Education for Special Children” (Project No. 30106230223).

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	Outcome Variable:
	Job Burnout
	β	t
Control Variable:
Age	–0.351	–7.878^***
Educational Level	–0.098	–2.943^**
Professional Backgrounds	0.001	0.031
Teaching Tenure	0.184	4.327^***
Monthly Income	–0.145	–4.230^***
Kindergarten Attribute	–0.179	–5.605^***
Kindergarten Location	–0.070	–2.163^*
Main effect:
Job Stress	0.249	6.819^***
POS	–0.307	–8.261^***
Moderating effect:
Job Stress*POS	–0.132	–4.430^***
ΔR ² = 0.017^***