The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationships among early childhood teachers' role conflict, positive conflict resolution strategies, negative conflict resolution strategies, and turnover intention, and to verify the mediating effe...
The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationships among early childhood teachers' role conflict, positive conflict resolution strategies, negative conflict resolution strategies, and turnover intention, and to verify the mediating effects of conflict resolution strategies in these relationships. By confirming how role conflict influences turnover intention and clarifying the role of conflict resolution strategies within these relationships, this study aimed to understand early childhood teachers' turnover intention and to suggest practical implications for reducing it.
To achieve this research objective, the research questions are as follows.
Research Question 1. What are the causal relationships among early childhood teachers' role conflict, positive conflict resolution strategies, negative conflict resolution strategies, and turnover intention?
Research Question 2. What are the mediating effects of positive and negative conflict resolution strategies on the relationship between early childhood teachers' role conflict and turnover intention?
Regarding the research method, the participants were early childhood teachers in charge of classes for children aged three to five years while working at kindergartens and childcare centers in S City and K City. A total of 554 questionnaires were collected, and after excluding 12 with insincere responses, 542 were used for the final analysis. To measure early childhood teachers' role conflict, conflict resolution strategies, and turnover intention, a role conflict scale, a conflict resolution strategy scale, and a turnover intention scale were used. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and mediation analysis using SPSS 30.0 and PROCESS Macro 5.0.
The research results according to each research question are as follows.
First, early childhood teachers' role conflict had a negative effect on positive conflict resolution strategies and a positive effect on negative conflict resolution strategies, and role conflict had a positive effect on turnover intention. In addition, positive conflict resolution strategies had a negative effect on turnover intention, whereas negative conflict resolution strategies had a positive effect on turnover intention.
Second, in the relationship between early childhood teachers' role conflict and turnover intention, positive conflict resolution strategies and negative conflict resolution strategies each showed a significant partial mediating effect.
The results of this study demonstrate that early childhood teachers' role conflict not only directly affects turnover intention but also exerts an indirect effect through conflict resolution strategies. The higher the role conflict, the less teachers use positive strategies and the more they use negative strategies, and this pattern of coping in turn leads to turnover intention.
Therefore, to reduce early childhood teachers' turnover intention, organizational support that alleviates role conflict itself must be accompanied by practical support that intervenes in teachers' conflict coping strategies.