The relationship between preschool teachers’ effort-reward imbalance and occupational well-being in Chinese rural areas: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

Effort-reward imbalance is a mismatch between the amount of effort teachers put into their job and the amount of reward they get, which is quite common among rural preschool teachers in China. The feeling of effort-reward imbalance may result in teachers’ lack of passion, emotional exhaustion and other emotional problems at work, and then affect their feeling of well-being in work condition. Psychological capital as a kind of positive psychological resources may buffer the negative effect of effort-reward imbalance on rural preschool teachers’ occupational well-being. In this study, 3065 rural preschool teachers in China were selected to explore the effect of the effort-reward imbalance on their occupational well-being, as well as the role of emotional exhaustion and psychological capital. The results show that: (1) effort-reward imbalance could negatively predict occupational well-being; (2) emotional exhaustion played a mediating role between effort-reward imbalance and occupational well-being; (3) psychological capital moderated the direct path from effort-reward imbalance to occupational well-being, and also moderated the indirect path from effort-reward imbalance to occupational well-being through emotional exhaustion. That is, a high level of psychological capital can alleviate the direct negative predictive effect of effort-reward imbalance on rural preschool teachers’ occupational well-being, and also alleviate the indirect negative effect through emotional exhaustion on occupational well-being. The results have important theoretical and practical significance for improving the occupational well-being of rural preschool teachers and reducing their sense of effort-reward imbalance.