The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among the organizational commitment, teaching flow, subjective quality of life and happiness of kindergarten teachers. Three research questions were posed:
1. What are the organizational commitment, teaching flow, subjective quality of life and happiness of kindergarten teachers?
2. What is the relationship among the organizational commitment, teaching flow, subjective quality of life and happiness of kindergarten teachers?
3. What relative influence do the organizational commitment, teaching flow, and subjective quality of life of kindergarten teachers exert on their happiness?
The subjects in this study were 200 teachers who were selected by random sampling from kindergartens located in the city of Busan and South Gyeongsang Province. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 191 respondents were analyzed.
The instrument used in this study was prepared by modifying existing questionnaires after earlier studies and literature provided by domestic and foreign researchers, research institutes and educational administration institutions in relation to the organizational commitment, teaching flow, subjective quality of life and happiness of kindergarten teachers were collected and analyzed to lay the theoretical foundation for the study. The finalized questionnaire dealt with the happiness of kindergarten teachers, their organizational commitment, teaching flow and subjective quality of life with 46, 21, 36 and 25 items respectively.
After a preliminary survey was conducted, a main survey was implemented with the finalized questionnaire from March 18 to April 14, 2013. The collected data were analyzed by the statistical package PASW 18.0. The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the average scores of the kindergarten teachers in organizational commitment, teaching flow, subjective quality of life and happiness were investigated. As a result, they got a mean of 3.34(SD=.33) in happiness; 3.31(SD=.38) in organizational commitment; 3.30(SD=.37) in teaching flow; and 3.31(SD=.35) in subjective quality of life.
Second, the correlation among the happiness, organizational commitment, teaching flow and subjective quality of life of the kindergarten teachers was analyzed. And it''s found that their happiness total scores were positively correlated to their organizational commitment, teaching flow and subjective quality of life total scores.
Third, the relative influence of the organizational commitment, teaching flow and subjective quality of life of the kindergarten teachers on their quality of life was analyzed. Concerning the relative predictability of the independent variables of the kindergarten teachers, subjective quality of life exercised the largest influence on that, followed by teaching flow and organizational commitment. How much their organizational commitment, teaching flow and subjective quality of life predicted their happiness was analyzed in more detail, and subjective quality of life had the greatest relative influence, followed by teaching flow. In addition, the relative influence of their organizational commitment, teaching flow and subjective quality of life on happiness was analyzed by inputting every subfactor of the three variables, and psychological health that was one of the subfactors of subjective quality of life made the greatest relative prediction of happiness, followed by clear goal, behavioral-perceptual congruence, a sense of control and continuous commitment. The former three were the subfactors of teaching flow, and the last one was one of the subfactors of organizational commitment.