Workplace Relationships, Emotion Regulation, and Teacher–Child Relationships Among Early Childhood Educators in South Korea

Positive workplace relationships are likely to be associated with improved quality of teacher–child relationships in early care and education (ECE) settings. However, the relationship with colleagues and directors might demonstrate differential trend given the hierarchical relational contexts in South Korean (SK) ECE work environments. Previous studies suggest that teachers’ use of differential emotion regulation strategies might mediate these associations. Therefore, this study investigates how teachers’ satisfaction with relationships with colleagues and directors are uniquely associated with their emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression), which in turn is associated with the quality of teacher–child relationships. Using structural equation modeling on 322 teachers, the study found that teachers’ satisfaction with the workplace relationships was directly and indirectly associated with the quality of teacher–child relationships via reappraisal and suppression emotion regulation. However, teachers’ satisfaction with the relationship with directors was indirectly associated with decreased quality of teacher–child relationships via higher suppression. The findings suggest that efforts are needed to promote teachers’ decreased use of suppression when they are dealing with emotions aroused in their relationship with directors or to fundamentally redefine the ideal relationship between teachers and directors.