Why Agriculture Teachers Leave: A National Examination of Turnover Intentions and Work-Family Conflict

Abstract

Using data from a random sample of secondary school agriculture teachers in the United States, this study explored the work-family conflict and turnover intentions of agriculture teachers. Additionally, this study sought to determine the relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intentions among agriculture teachers. Work-family conflict was split into two domains, work interference with family and family interference with work. Teachers reported the higher level of work-family conflict within the work interference with family domain. However, agriculture teachers in this study identified moderately low turnover intentions. The three variables of interest (i.e., work interference with family, family interference with work, and turnover intentions) were compared by gender with no statistically significant differences identified. The final objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the two work-family conflict variables and turnover intentions. The model predicted 18% of the turnover intentions among agriculture teachers. Only one of the predictor variables, work interference with family, was identified as a statistically significant predictor of turnover intentions. The implications of work-family conflict, specifically work interference with family, are discussed and recommendations for research and practice are explored.