Organizational support and job satisfaction among middle school teachers: Self-esteem as a mediator

This study investigated the relationships among perceived organizational support, self-esteem, and job satisfaction in middle school teachers, paying particular attention to the underlying mechanisms. We conducted a survey of 523 middle school teachers from public schools in China. Correlation analysis revealed significant positive relationships among all variables, and structural equation modeling with bootstrapping indicated that self-esteem served as a partial mediator between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction. Thus, perceived organizational support not only directly predicted teachers' job satisfaction but also indirectly predicted job satisfaction through its association with higher self-esteem levels among teachers. These findings suggest that fostering organizational support in school settings represents a promising strategy for simultaneously enhancing teachers' psychological well-being and job satisfaction, with selfesteem serving as a key psychological mechanism underlying this effect.