Pedagogical staff in children’s day care centres in Germany – links between working conditions, job satisfaction, commitment and work-related stress

Abstract

This article investigates links between staff working conditions in children’s day care centres (Kindertageseinrichtungen – known as Kitas in Germany), job satisfaction, commitment and perceived stress at work. Data are based on the nationwide, representative questionnaire survey AQUA (Arbeitsplatz und Qualität in Kitas – Workplace quality in children’s day care centres), a project conducted by the State Institute of Early Childhood Research in Munich. From the participants’ responses (N_total = 6606) regarding their working conditions, an index was established that permitted a categorisation into three groups of quality. Well-established instruments and scales were used to measure general job satisfaction and commitment. The Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI) model by Siegrist and colleagues (2004) was used to examine stress at work. Results indicate that staff working under good conditions show higher job satisfaction, higher commitment values and less stress at work. Furthermore, distinct differences could be found between centre directors and staff without a leading function.

Keywords:

• Pedagogical staff
• working conditions
• effort–reward imbalance
• stress at work
• job satisfaction
• commitment

Notes

1. The AQUA project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Fkz 01NV1103). The authors assume responsibility for the content of this article. Homepage: www.aqua-studie.de.

2. ‘Poor’, ‘fair’ and ‘good’ are labels for the tercile split in order to have distinct factors for further ANOVAS – these are not valid categories tested against external criteria.