Family/friends Support, Work-family Conflict, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention in Young Preschool Teachers in China: A Serial Mediation Model

Abstract High turnover rates of preschool teachers threaten the stability and quality of teaching staff and restrict the overall development of national preschool education. As young teachers become the main force of Chinese preschool teaching staff, their high turnover intention at the beginning of teaching careers have become a serious problem. With a sample of 1121 Chinese young preschool teachers born in or after 1990, the current study examined whether family/friends support was related to turnover intention and whether this relation was mediated by work-family conflict and organizational commitment. The results of structural equation model showed that: (1) family/friends support was significantly and negatively related to teachers’ turnover intention; (2) organizational commitment mediated the relationship between family/friends support and turnover intention, while the independent mediating role of work-family conflict was not supported; and (3) serial mediating role of work-family conflict and organizational commitment was observed in the relationship between family/friends support and turnover intention. These findings indicated that supportive family/friends could help young preschool teachers deal with work-family conflict, improve organizational commitment, thereby mitigating their turnover intention.