Chinese Rural Kindergarten Teachers’ Work–Family Conflict and Their Turnover Intention: The Role of Emotional Exhaustion and Professional Identity

Abstract

The loss of rural kindergarten teachers has become a common social concern in China, which is of great importance to the development of preschool education. This study conducted a survey of 2944 kindergarten teachers in mainland China, to explore the relationship between work–family conflict and turnover intention, the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion, and the moderating effect of professional identity. The study used the work–family conflict questionnaire, the emotional exhaustion scale, the turnover intention questionnaire, and the professional identity questionnaire. The results showed that (1) work–family conflict significantly predicted turnover intention; (2) emotional exhaustion played a mediating role between work–family conflict and turnover intention; and (3) professional identity moderated the latter half path of the mediation model, that is, strong professional identity alleviated the indirect predicting effect of work–family conflict on turnover intention through emotional exhaustion. The results clarified the influencing mechanism of work–family conflict on turnover intention, which could help improve rural preschool teachers’ positive emotions and reducing turnover.