ECE Pre-Service Teachers’ Autonomy and Well-Being in Vocational Colleges in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China

Early childhood education (ECE) pre-service internships represent a critical transition from academic preparation to professional practice, during which teachers often encounter high job demands alongside constrained autonomy, particularly in under-resourced regions of China. Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) and the job demands–resources (JD-R) framework, this study investigates how teacher autonomy relates to the professional well-being of ECE pre-service teachers and whether physical and psychological well-being mediate this relationship. Survey data were collected from 493 ECE pre-service teachers enrolled in vocational colleges and undertaking mandatory internships in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, China. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the results indicate that teacher autonomy has significant positive effects on both physical and psychological well-being. However, its direct effect on professional well-being is not statistically significant. Instead, these dimensions jointly mediate the relationship between autonomy and professional well-being, accounting for the majority of the total effect. These findings suggest that autonomy functions as a proximal job resource that enhances teachers’ health-related and psychological states, which in turn underpin more distal professional outcomes. The study contributes to the teacher well-being literature by extending SDT and JD-R frameworks to pre-service ECE internship contexts in vocational education and underscores the importance of complementary organizational and recovery resources—such as mentoring and supportive leadership—in translating autonomy into sustained professional well-being.