Psychological hardiness as a mediator variable between workplace bullying and job anxiety among early childhood teachers: implications for healthcare

Purpose: Early childhood teachers play a significant role in building children’s success in their first years of school. Therefore, a healthy early childhood workforce in a healthy working environment is an essential aspect of effective early childhood services. This paper aims to explore the extent to which psychological hardiness can be considered as a mediator variable between exposure to workplace bullying and job anxiety among early childhood teachers. Design/methodology/approach: A homogeneous sample comprised of 200 early childhood teachers. For data collection, the researcher used the workplace bullying scale, the psychological hardiness scale and the job anxiety scale among early childhood teachers (prepared by the researcher). Findings: The findings indicated that psychological hardiness mediates the relationship between exposure to workplace bullying and job anxiety among early childhood teachers. Originality/value: The research result highlighted the necessity of providing counseling programs for early childhood teachers helping them eliminate work stress that affects their job performance. In addition, the kindergarten administration must concentrate on how to effectively communicate and cooperate with early childhood teachers in light of regulations, policies and laws to defeat the spread of workplace bullying. The results of this research contributed to the existing literature by examining the relationship between the research variables, particularly in the early childhood education context.