Resilient in Precarity: How Employment Contract Type Moderates the Relationships between Psychological Factors and Music Teachers’ Intention to Remain in the Profession

Josip Šabić, PhD is the author of the scientific paper “Resilient in Precarity: How Employment Contract Type Moderates the Relationships between Psychological Factors and Music Teachers’ Intention to Remain in the Profession“. The paper is published in the “Sociology and Space “, 63 (2).

Abstract: This study examines whether music teachers’ employment contract type moderates the relationships between psychological factors—work-related flow, self-efficacy, and musical calling—and their intention to remain in the profession. Participants were 293 music teachers (70.9% female) from 55 elementary and upper secondary music schools in Croatia. On average, teachers reported frequent flow experiences, high self-efficacy, strong musical calling, and strong intention to remain in the profession. Preliminary correlational analyses indicated positive associations between all three psychological factors and intention to stay; however, structural equation modelling revealed that only self-efficacy had a significant direct effect. Additionally, holding a full-time permanent contract, compared to a part-time and/or temporary contract, positively predicted intention to remain in the profession. Significant moderation effects were observed between flow and contract type, as well as between self-efficacy and contract type, indicating that the associations with intention to remain were more pronounced among teachers holding part-time and/or temporary contracts compared to those with full-time permanent contracts. The moderation effect of musical calling and contract type was not confirmed. Specifically, the results indicate that self-efficacy, as a personal resource, and flow, conceptualized as an indicator of work engagement within the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework, serve as more salient facilitating factors for music teachers employed under less favourable contract conditions. Accordingly, efforts to strengthen work-related self-efficacy and flow are likely to have a greater impact on music teachers with part-time and/or temporary contracts in supporting their intention to remain in the profession.

The paper is available at the link.