• Two latent profiles of preschool teachers’ wellbeing were identified: lower wellbeing and higher wellbeing. • Higher occupational self-efficacy of preschool teachers increased the chance of a membership in the profile withhigher wellbeing (compared with the reference profile with lower wellbeing). • Wellbeing of preschool teachers was positively related to teacher–child closeness. • Wellbeing of preschool teachers was negatively related to teacher–child conflict. There are not only research gaps in regard to preschool teachers’ wellbeing profiles, but also regarding predictors and consequences of these profiles. By using a sample of 85 preschool teachers and 287 children from 85 preschools in Austria, the aim of this study was to identify latent profiles of preschool teachers’ wellbeing and investigate job demands, job resources and personal resources as predictors of these wellbeing profiles. Furthermore, consequences of preschool teachers’ wellbeing profiles on closeness and conflict in teacher–child relationships were studied. Latent profile analyses identified two profiles: lower wellbeing (i.e., lower levels of work engagement and thriving) and higher wellbeing (i.e., higher levels of work engagement and thriving). Binary logistic regression analyses demonstrated that higher occupational self-efficacy of preschool teachers increases the chance of a membership in the profile with higher wellbeing compared with the reference profile with lower wellbeing. A path analysis showed that the wellbeing of preschool teachers was positively related to teacher–child closeness and negatively related to teacher–child conflict after consideration of control variables such as child personality types. The findings are discussed in regard to the possibilities of improving preschool teachers’ wellbeing.
Embacher et al. (Thu,) studied this question.