Subjective well-being among Hong Kong kindergarten teachers: the roles of perceived work environment,personality types, and resilience

Abstract

 Although kindergarten work environments in Hong Kong and overseas have been found to be unfavourable, a smaller than expected number of teachers have displayed a low level of subjective well-being (SWB). This research aimed to investigate how SWB could be predicted by perceived work environment, personality types, and resilience. It also examined the mediating functions of resilience in the relationships of perceived work environment and personality types to SWB.

In this research, SWB was represented by job satisfaction, measured by the Job Satisfaction Survey; self-esteem, assessed by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; and mental health complaints, captured by the General Health Questionnaire-12. Perceived work environment comprised psychosocial and non-psychosocial aspects, with the former evaluated by the School Culture Survey and the latter measured by the Kindergarten Ergonomics-Manpower Inventory (KEMI), a new inventory developed in Study 2. Personality types were measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Resilience was represented by hardiness and optimism, which were captured by the Hardiness Scale and the Revised Life Orientation Test, respectively.

This research adopted a mixed method design and comprised four studies. Study 1 was the pilot study involving 64 teachers in validating seven inventories and exploring the relationships between perceived school culture, personality types, hardiness, optimism, job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Data analyses using SPSS 17 revealed that perceived school culture and personality types were significantly related to job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Hardiness, but not optimism, mediated the relationships of perceived work environment and personality types to job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints.

Study 2 developed a new inventory (i.e. KEMI) to measure kindergartens’ non-psychosocial work environments and comprised two stages. The first stage involved two panels of 10 kindergarten principals in the item pool development and 141 teachers rating the items. The second stage was the cross-validation of the findings and involved 125 teachers. Data analyses using SPSS 17 and AMOS 18 showed that items in the KEMI clustered into five subscales, of which the “Ergonomics” subscale contributed the largest variances.

Study 3 was the main study, involving 371 teachers. It investigated how job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints were predicted by perceived school culture, perceived ergonomics-manpower, personality types, hardiness, and optimism, and how hardiness and optimism mediated the relationships of perceived work environment and personality types to job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Data analyses using SPSS 17 and AMOS 18 revealed that perceived work environment predicted job satisfaction, but its effects on self-esteem and mental health complaints were fully mediated by hardiness and optimism. Teachers were predominantly sensing-feeling-judging types. Teachers who were extraverted, intuitive, feeling, judging types tended to perceive their work environments more favorably and to show higher levels of SWB.

Study 4 aimed to enrich the interpretations of the quantitative findings by interviews with 24 teachers (volunteers from the participants in Study 3) in four focus groups. Five main themes and two sub-themes emerged.

Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Recommendations for future research directions are also made.