ABSTRACT

This study examined the moderated mediating effect of teacher efficacy and resilience on the relationship between early childhood teachers' job satisfaction and teacher-child interactions. A survey was conducted on 409 early childhood teachers in Korea, and the collected data were analyzed using R 4.2.0 and the R version of PROCESSmacro 4.3. The results are as follows: first, early childhood teachers' job satisfaction had a positive effect on teacher efficacy and teacher-child interactions, and teacher efficacy had a positive effect on teacher-child interactions. Second, teacher efficacy had a positive mediating effect on the relationship between job satisfaction and teacher-child interactions. Third, resilience had a buffering moderating effect on the impact of job satisfaction on teacher efficacy. Lastly, the mediating effect of teacher efficacy on the relationship between early childhood teachers' job satisfaction and teacher-child interactions showed conditional effects depending on resilience. These results suggest the need to support the resilience of early childhood teachers as a part of their professionalism to connect the healthy professional life of early childhood teachers with the healthy growth of children.

Keyword :