The mediating effect of ego resilience in the relationship between family health and academic stress of prospective early childhood teachers

Objectives The purpose of this study is to verify the mediating effect of ego resilience between family health and academic stress of prospective early childhood teachers. Methods To carry out the research, surveys were given to 480 future early childhood educators who were part of 3- and 4-year early childhood education programs. Out of these, 456 surveys were considered suitable for the study after removing the ones that were either not returned or not filled out sincerely. The data from these surveys were then analyzed using two software tools: SPSS version 25.0 and Process macro version 4.2. Results The results obtained through the above method are as follows. First, it was found that as the family func-tionality of prospective early childhood teachers increases, their ego resilience increases. Second, it was found that as the family functionality of prospective early childhood teachers increases, their academic stress decreases. Third, it was found that the higher the ego resilience of prospective early childhood teachers, the lower their aca-demic stress. Ego-resilience showed a partial mediating effect in the relationship between family functionality and academic stress of prospective early childhood teachers. Conclusions The academic stress of prospective early childhood teachers is due to their psychological and emo-tional aspects. This study revealed that family health has a decisive influence on the psychological and emotional aspects of prospective early childhood teachers, and that ego resilience also exists. In particular, ego resilience played a mediating role between family health and academic stress. Therefore, in order to manage academic stress among prospective early childhood teachers, various strategies should be prepared to increase their family health and ego resilience in a positive direction.