The impact of work–family conflict on teachers’ turnover intention: the mediating role of emotional labor

This study aims to investigate the relationship between emotional labor and the impact of work–family conflict (WFC) on teachers’ intention to resign. A survey was conducted among 420 teachers from higher vocational colleges in 11 cities in Jiangsu Province, China. Reliability and validity tests, along with structural equation modeling, indicate that WFC positively affects teachers’ turnover intention. Moreover, emotional labor partially mediates the relationship between WFC and turnover intention. This study enriches the understanding of the relationship between WFC and turnover intention, highlights the mediating role of emotional labor, further expands the applicability of emotional labor theory, provides a theoretical basis for subsequent research and offers substantive teacher management suggestions for school managers. By reducing WFCs and optimizing teacher emotional management, the turnover rate of teachers can be reduced.