Objective: This study examined the structural relationships between childcare teachers’ grit, stress coping methods, and burnout, and investigated how childcare teachers’ grit affects burnout through stress coping methods.
Methods: Three hundred and sixty-three childcare teachers, who had completed the promotion curriculum in J province and K metropolitan cities, participated in a questionnaire survey. The aforementioned structural relationships were analyzed based on the collected data by using structural equation modeling with AMOS 18.0.
Results: First, the study results show that the grit has significantly positive influence to the active stress coping method. Second, a direct negative effect of grit was noted on exhaustion, and an indirect negative effect of grit was noted on depersonalization and low personal accomplishment. Finally, the results showed that active coping with stress reduced the low personal accomplishment, one of the component of burnout, among childcare teachers.
Conclusions: This study proposes reconsidering the importance of grit among childcare teachers and suggests that renewed strategies and education are required to promote grit in childcare institution in the future.