Work–family conflicts and teacher commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a moderated mediation analysis of emotional exhaustion and psychological capital

The present study examined the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between work-family conflicts and commitment to the profession and the moderating role of psychological capital in explaining the proposed mediating mechanism. The study was based on a cross-sectional design and was conducted in Spring 2020 on a convenience sample of 1655 Croatian teachers. The moderated mediation analysis revealed that work-family and family-work conflicts were related to emotional exhaustion (β = .645, p < .001 and β = .353, p < .001, respectively), which, in turn, was related to commitment to the profession (β = −.319, p < .001 and β = −.353, p < .001, respectively). Also, work-family conflicts were directly related to commitment to profession (β = −.133, p < .001 and β = −.149, p < .001, respectively). Finally, the relationship between family-work conflict and emotional exhaustion was stronger among teachers with greater psychological capital.