Zang Ning, Cao Hongjian, Zhou Nan, Jiang Lianjiang, Li Beilei
Department of Educational Psychology and School Counselling, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Institute of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Soc Psychol Educ. 2022;25(5):1003-1030. doi: 10.1007/s11218-022-09719-1. Epub 2022 Jul 31.
Job exhaustion is not uncommon among Chinese middle school teachers, but the key antecedents of job exhaustion and the underlying mechanisms in this historically underrepresented population remain poorly understood. This study examined the association between job demand and exhaustion, and tested the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of teachers' role (i.e., homeroom versus subject) in this association. The two-wave, China Education Panel Survey data from 701 Chinese junior middle school teachers ( = 30.05 years old, = 7.86; 78.75% females) were used. Primary hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. Results indicated that job load rather than job stress at Wave 1 was positively associated with job exhaustion at Wave 2 indirectly through its negative association with job satisfaction at Wave 2 only among subject teachers; in contrast, for homeroom teachers, job satisfaction at Wave 2 was the only factor that was identified to be negatively associated with job exhaustion at Wave 2. Notably, all significant associations emerged after controlling for a number of covariates, including job exhaustion at Wave 1. Such findings shed initial light on the complexity inherent within the phenomena of middle school teachers' occupational health in a Chinese cultural context. Reducing teachers' work load associated with long working hours and promoting teachers' job satisfaction may be effective ways to relieve and prevent job exhaustion, especially for Chinese subject teachers.
职业倦怠在中国中学教师中并不罕见，但在这个历史上代表性不足的群体中，职业倦怠的关键前因和潜在机制仍知之甚少。本研究考察了工作需求与倦怠之间的关联，并检验了工作满意度的中介作用以及教师角色（即班主任与学科教师）在这种关联中的调节作用。使用了来自701名中国初中教师的两波中国教育面板调查数据（平均年龄=30.05岁，标准差=7.86；78.75%为女性）。主要假设通过结构方程模型进行检验。结果表明，仅在学科教师中，第1波的工作负荷而非工作压力通过其与第2波工作满意度的负相关间接与第2波的职业倦怠呈正相关；相比之下，对于班主任来说，第2波的工作满意度是唯一被确定与第2波职业倦怠呈负相关的因素。值得注意的是，所有显著关联都是在控制了包括第1波职业倦怠在内的多个协变量后出现的。这些发现初步揭示了中国文化背景下中学教师职业健康现象所固有的复杂性。减少与长时间工作相关的教师工作量并提高教师工作满意度可能是缓解和预防职业倦怠的有效方法，尤其是对中国学科教师而言。
