The Structural Relationship between Childcare Teachers’ Emotional Labor and Teacher-Child Interaction: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Happiness

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationship between childcare teachers’ emotional labor and happiness and teacher-child interaction, and to verify the mediating effect of happiness. Methods The subject of the study was 702 teachers working at childcare centers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. The data collected through the survey were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 programs to analyze the structural relationship between variables, and the significance of the mediating effect was verified using the bootstrap method. Results As a result of the analysis, it was found that there is a positive correlation between the teachers’ emotional labor, the feeling of happiness, and the teacher-child interaction and that the teachers’ emotional labor affects the teacher-child interaction and the sense of happiness. Happiness was also shown to influence teacher-child interaction. In addition, it was confirmed that happiness positively mediates the teachers' emotional labor and teacher-child interaction. Conclusions These results demonstrate the structural relationship and the mediating effect between the teachers’ emotional labor and teacher-child interaction provide basic data for the preparation of measures to prevent and control the teachers’ emotional labor in order to enhance teacher-child interaction, and suggest the need to improve their happiness and promote positive interaction between teachers and children.