Factors associated with kindergarten teachers’ willingness to continue working

The turnover rate among kindergarten teachers in advanced countries is extremely high. As such, there is an urgent need to determine the reasons for this turnover and to identify ways to prevent it. The current study investigates the individual and environmental factors that impact kindergarten teachers’ willingness to continue working. A total of 600 kindergarten teachers in Japan participated in this study. Participants responded to questionnaires regarding their willingness to continue working, mental health, work engagement, and the availability of social support. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to analyze participants’ data, with willingness to continue working for 5 or more years as the dependent variable. Additionally, Spearman rank correlation was used to examine the correlations between factors associated with willingness to continue working. Factors such as older age, living with a spouse, caring for younger children (up to 2 years old) at work, good mental health, and higher work engagement were significantly associated with teachers’ higher willingness to continue working. Factors such as marriage, health and family problems, overtime work, issues with workplace childcare, and education policy, working time/day problems, human relations, and difficulties taking care of children were correlated with teachers’ lack of willingness to continue working. The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that welfare benefits and individual support systems could be key elements to encourage kindergarten teachers to continue working and could lead to their improved job satisfaction and mental health. Balanced work conditions and workers’ high agreement with their workplace's overall childcare or educational policies may lead to lower turnover. Some programs – such as relationship counselling – could have a positive impact on teachers’ mental health and job satisfaction.