Relationship between the principal's restrictive behavior and preschool teachers' turnover intention: A serial mediation model

Abstract

Improving the management of principals has been proven to be an effective strategy to reduce preschool teachers' turnover. However, relevant empirical evidence for preschool teachers is still insufficient. A total of 3623 preschool teachers from the Chinese mainland participated in the current study through random cluster sampling and were administered self‐report questionnaires to measure their principal's restrictive behavior, work–family conflict, effort–reward imbalance (ERI), and turnover intention. This study used serial mediation models to examine the direct relationship between the principal's restrictive behavior and preschool teachers' turnover intention, as well as the indirect relationship between the two variables through the independent and serial mediating roles of ERI and work–family conflict (including work‐to‐family conflict [WFC] and family‐to‐work conflict [FWC]). Results showed that among Chinese preschool teachers, (1) the direct relationship between the principal's restrictive behavior and turnover intention was significant; (2) ERI mediated the relationship between the principal's restrictive behavior and turnover intention; (3) WFC and FWC both mediated the relationship between the principal's restrictive behavior and turnover intention; and (4) a serial mediating effect of ERI and WFC/FWC was observed. The findings have theoretical and practical significance for interventions to reduce preschool teachers' turnover.