Towards a greater understanding of why child care teachers leave: examining job resources, job demands, well-being, turnover intentio, and turnover among lead and assistant teachers in a Swiss community

Abstract

A high percentage of child care teachers choose to leave the job or the profession across countries presumably due to relatively poor working conditions and low pay and despite
relatively high levels of job satisfaction. This thesis addresses the question of why child care teachers choose to leave by investigating their job resources, job demands, burnout, turnover intention, and actual turnover. The four studies presented here use data of lead teachers, assistant teachers, and directors collected in two questionnaire-surveys in a Swiss community over the course of three years. Reported job demands and job resources were mainly associated with characteristics of the facility. Furthermore, lead teachers’ experienced burnout symptoms were associated with perceived control, pay satisfaction, and the workload in the facility. Moreover, the wish to quit at the baseline predicted actual turnover three years later. However, the associations between job resources and turnover intention mediated by job satisfaction was stronger than the association between job demands and turnover intention mediated by burnout. Reasons for staying in the profession included the team, the children, joy, and a professional workplace. Reasons for leaving were unprofessional leadership, lack of advancement, poor working conditions, low wages and personal reasons. Overall, the findings imply that child care teachers are primarily motivated by intrinsic rewards (the children, the team), while a lack of extrinsic rewards (working conditions and wages, leadership) drives them out of the job and profession. The findings of the four studies combined with the international studies suggest that child care work is a profession at the margins.