Examining Resilience, Self-Efficacy and Environmental Chaos Relationship in Early Childhood Education and Care Teachers

Teaching in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is a highly demanding profession, particularly in challenging educational contexts, such as Greece. This study aims to explore teacher resilience and examine its associations with self-efficacy and environmental chaos. Specifically, the study explores the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between teacher resilience and environmental chaos. Two hundred and six ECEC teachers from Greece were recruited via convenience sampling to participate in this study. The measures used were the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Efficacy subscale of Teacher Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (TSWQ), and the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS-D). The results of descriptive statistics showed that teachers’ levels of resilience were moderate to high. Correlational analyses revealed significant positive relationships between teacher resilience and self-efficacy, as well as significant negative relationships between both resilience and self-efficacy and a chaotic classroom atmosphere. The mediation analysis demonstrated that self-efficacy partially mediated the negative relationship between a chaotic atmosphere and teacher resilience. Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of mitigating environmental stressors and fostering robust self-efficacy beliefs in order to enhance the resilience and overall well-being of ECEC professionals.