Date of Award

Fall 2021

Degree Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Psychology, PhD

Program

School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Michelle Bligh

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

M. Gloria González-Morales

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Kendall Cotton-Bronk

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Claire Robertson-Kraft

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© Copyright Neesha Daulat, 2021 All rights reserved.

Keywords

affective commitment, attrition, early career teacher, purpose, retention, well-being

Subject Categories

Education | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Psychology

Abstract

The attrition rate of early career teachers is high. In fact, the government spends $2 billion annually to replace teachers in the first five years of their tenure (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005). The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold: 1) to test the relationship between purpose, psychological well-being, and affective commitment to the profession, and 2) to design and examine the impact of a purpose-centered intervention in a sample of early career teachers in their first or second year of teaching, in the northeast. Study 1 examined the relationship between early career teachers’ purpose, psychological well-being, and commitment to the profession through a cross-sectional survey (N = 78) and regression-based analyses of a full mediation model. I hypothesized that early career teachers’ sense of purpose would contribute to their affective commitment to the profession through their feelings of psychological well-being. Results of Study 1 suggested that early career teachers’ purpose was a strong predictor of their psychological well-being and affective commitment to the profession. Building on Study 1, in Study 2 I developed, piloted, and tested a one-hour purpose-centered intervention (called Grounding in Purpose) using two t-tests (independent and dependent samples): 1) comparison of the waiting control group (n = 43) with the intervention group (n = 67) and 2) comparison of pretest and posttest scores of some participants in the intervention group (n = 20). Research findings for Study 2 indicate that a purpose-centered intervention may positively influence early career teachers’ purpose. Theoretically, the findings establish purpose as a key contributor to affective commitment in ECTs. Practically, the results offer educational leaders and professionals who support early career teachers with tangible recommendations to foster early career teachers’ purpose.

ISBN

9798759994800

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