The teaching profession has been found as one of the stressful occupations. While numerous research has shown that the school culture contribute to teaching effectiveness and teachers' well-being, it mainly focuses on teachers from the primary or secondary levels of education. Very little attention has been paid to kindergarten teachers despite that preschool education is considered as crucial foundation of young childrenûs learning development. This research examined the relationships between psychosocial work environment of kindergartens and teachersû mental health in Hong Kong. 136 kindergarten teachers were recruited and surveyed on their perceived school culture (School Culture Survey) and general mental health (GHQ-12). Results showed that teachers' perceived school culture correlated negatively with their mental health complaints such as insomnia and tension problems. In other words, teachers who worked in more favourable psychosocial work environment had less mental health complaints than those teachers who worked in less favourable environment. Furthermore, while a significant portion of kindergarten teachers displayed moderate to severe mental health complaints, regression analysis indicated that the school culture domain of collegial support, among other domains such as professional development and learning partnership, contributed significantly and uniquely to teachers' mental health complaints. The implications of developing and sustaining a whole school culture of collegial support in kindergartens are discussed.
|Publication status||Published - 2009|
CitationWong, P. Y. H. (2009, September). Relationships between psychosocial work environment and kindergarten teachers' mental health in Hong Kong. Paper presented at the International Conference on Educational Research (ICER) 2009: Learning Community for Sustainable Development, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.
- Psychosocial work environment
- Kindergarten teachers' mental health