Early childhood education settings are also organizations: Indirect associations between transformational leadership and children’s autonomy support through teachers’ self-efficacy and work engagement

Abstract

Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers play an essential role in delivering high-quality education, yet they often struggle with diverse job demands and lack of job and personal resources to help them manage those demands. To understand the needs of ECE teachers, it is important to study personal and professional factors that support them. Based on the Job Demands-Resources Model, this study aimed to examine the indirect association between ECE transformational leadership and children’s autonomy support through ECE teachers’ self-efficacy and work engagement. Data were collected from 381 ECE teachers (373 women), aged between 23 and 65 years (M = 47.5, SD = 10.3). Participants responded online to a sociodemographic questionnaire and self-report measures. Despite the small effect sizes, the results revealed that teachers’ self-efficacy and work engagement were independently involved in the indirect associations between ECE transformational leadership and children’s autonomy support by ECE teachers, whereas their combined sequential contribution was less evident. These findings help understand the needs of ECE teachers and identify organizational features (e.g., leadership) that can be improved to support ECE teachers’ self-efficacy and work engagement, ultimately fostering higher-quality education.