Liu Lili, Li Feifei, Gu Xinyu, Jiao Runkai
School of Education, Changchun Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, People's Republic of China.
College of Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2024 Aug 7;17:2941-2952. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S472779. eCollection 2024.
Possessing a calling to teach is a core and essential quality of good kindergarten teachers, and it is critical to explore which factors positively impact kindergarten teachers' career calling. Developing a career calling is a meaning-making process that can be influenced by the actions of others in the workplace. During the frequent parent-teacher interactions, parent-initiated support may serve as significant interpersonal cues for kindergarten teachers in developing their career calling. Thus, the present study examined the effect of parent-initiated support on kindergarten teachers' career calling. Further, we investigated the multiple mediating roles of global and specific basic psychological need satisfaction based on the self-determination theory (SDT).
Cross-sectional data were collected from 629 kindergarten teachers in China and analyzed using Mplus 8.3 software and the Process 3.5 macro of SPSS 26.0 software. Before testing the hypothesis, we used Mplus 8.3 to save factor scores from the Bifactor model of basic psychological need satisfaction and two uni-dimensional models of parent-initiated support and career calling. Subsequently, using the Process 3.5 macro within SPSS 26.0 software, we conducted path analysis to examine the total and mediating effects between parent-initiated support and kindergarten teachers' career calling.
The results revealed a positive effect of parent-initiated support on teachers' career calling. Teachers' global and specific competence need satisfaction partially mediated this positive effect, while the mediating effects of teachers' specific autonomy and relatedness need satisfaction were non-significant.
These findings suggest that parent-initiated support is an important job resource for kindergarten teachers' development of career calling. In addition to satisfying global psychological needs, satisfying specific needs (eg, competence need) provides additional benefits to kindergarten teachers' experience of career calling.
拥有教学使命感是优秀幼儿园教师的核心且必备素质，探究哪些因素对幼儿园教师的职业使命感有积极影响至关重要。形成职业使命感是一个意义建构过程，可能会受到工作场所中他人行为的影响。在频繁的家园互动中，家长主动提供的支持可能是幼儿园教师形成职业使命感的重要人际线索。因此，本研究考察了家长主动提供的支持对幼儿园教师职业使命感的影响。此外，我们基于自我决定理论（SDT），研究了总体和特定基本心理需求满足的多重中介作用。
收集了来自中国629名幼儿园教师的横断面数据，并使用Mplus 8.3软件和SPSS 26.0软件的Process 3.5宏程序进行分析。在检验假设之前，我们使用Mplus 8.3从基本心理需求满足的双因素模型以及家长主动提供的支持和职业使命感的两个单维模型中保存因子得分。随后，使用SPSS 26.0软件中的Process 3.5宏程序，我们进行了路径分析，以检验家长主动提供的支持与幼儿园教师职业使命感之间的总体和中介效应。
结果显示家长主动提供的支持对教师的职业使命感有积极影响。教师的总体和特定能力需求满足部分中介了这一积极影响，而教师特定的自主性和关联性需求满足的中介效应不显著。
这些发现表明，家长主动提供的支持是幼儿园教师职业使命感发展的重要工作资源。除了满足总体心理需求外，满足特定需求（如能力需求）为幼儿园教师的职业使命感体验带来了额外益处。
