Serial Multiple Mediation Effects of Job Stress and Burnout Between Organizational Justice and Organizational Commitment in Early Childhood Teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine the serial multiple mediation effects of job stress and burnout in the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment among early childhood teachers. The participants were 211 infant and toddler teachers employed in early childhood education institutions located in Y and S cities. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and PROCESS Macro 4.3. The results were as follows. First, organizational justice had a positive effect on teachers’ organizational commitment. Second, job stress and burnout sequentially mediated the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment, indicating a significant serial multiple mediation effect. In contrast, the individual mediation effects of job stress and burnout were not statistically significant. These findings suggest that, in order to enhance early childhood teachers’ organizational commitment, it is necessary to simultaneously improve perceived organizational justice and adopt a stepwise approach to mitigating the negative impact of job stress leading to burnout. Ultimately, by empirically identifying the structural relationships between organizational justice and teachers’ internal psychological variables, this study provides foundational data for developing practical strategies to promote organizational commitment among early childhood teachers.