Psychological empowerment and job burnout in Chinese kindergarten teachers: The mediating effect of occupational stress

Abstract

We explored the role of occupational stress in the relationship between psychological empowerment and job burnout in kindergarten teachers. Chinese female kindergarten teachers (n = 243) were participants (mean age = 28.2 years, SD = 5.08 years; specialist and below = 64.6%, formal work systems = 37.9%). They completed surveys on psychological empowerment, occupational stress, and job burnout. Path analysis findings suggested that higher psychological empowerment was associated with lower job burnout. Lower occupational stress mediated the relationship between psychological empowerment and job burnout so that the teachers with a sense of psychological empowerment were likely to report less job burnout. The higher the psychological empowerment, the lower the occupational stress and lower job burnout relationship held for older age teachers and those with undergraduate degree or a higher level of education and formal employment. Kindergarten teachers should be supported in improving their psychological empowerment to reduce occupational stress, and thus, limiting their risk for job burnout.