Open Access

Exploring how pay fairness perception affects preschool teachers’ job performance in China: A moderated mediation analysis

Xiaoying Zeng^1,*, Ying Liu², Yufei Li², Yongping Yu²

1 Department of Early Childhood Education, Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing, 210013, China
2 Department of Early Childhood Education, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, China

* Corresponding Author: Xiaoying Zeng. Email:

Journal of Psychology in Africa 2025, 35(1), 91-97. https://doi.org/10.32604/jpa.2025.065779

Received 20 July 2024; Accepted 27 October 2024; Issue published 30 April 2025

Abstract

This study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine how the social support received by teachers is associated with their work pay fairness perception in relation to their job satisfaction and job performance. Data were collected from 2411 preschool teachers in China (female = 98.01%; mean age = 29.12 years, SD = 6.28 years). These data were analyzed using structural equation modelling, bootstrapping and latent moderate structural equations. The results indicated that teachers’ perception of pay fairness is directly associated with self-rated job performance. Additionally, pay fairness perceptions have an indirect effect on higher job performance through job satisfaction. The social support that teachers perceive moderates the relationship between pay fairness perception and job satisfaction: the more social support teachers receive, the weaker the impact of pay fairness perception on job satisfaction. These findings suggest that teachers’ perception of pay fairness is related to their sense of quality of work life, as indicated by their job satisfaction and performance.

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Keywords

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