The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the differences in job stress,
teacher efficacy, emotion-focused coping strategies and depression of teachers
in early childhood education and care according to their demographic
backgrounds, 2) to investigate the influences of these variables on depression.
586 teachers in ECEC answered the questionnaires and the collected data were
analyzed through frequence, percentages, Pearson’s correlations, One-Way
ANOVA, Bonferroni post hoc test, and stepwise regression using SPSS 21.0.
The findings are as follows. First, job stress was significantly different
according to ECEC teachers’ ages and types of centers they were employed at
teacher efficacy was significantly different according to their ages and
education levels, emotion-focused coping strategies and depression were
respectively significantly different according to ages, types of centers and
education levels. Second, ECEC teachers’ depression was influenced by
undercontrolled expressionof emotion-focused coping strategies, home
connection and promotion of positive learning environment of teacher efficacy,
undercontrolled thinkingof emotion-focused coping strategies and work overload
and job stress in order. These results imply that a support system and a policy
should be established for ECEC teachers to express and understand their
emotions in a positive way and related information should be provided to them
through workshops.