ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Understanding Turnover Intention Among Preschool Teachers in China: The Role of Psychological Contract Violation, Organizational Cynicism, and Equity Sensitivity
Provisionally accepted
Yibei Yang1
Norarbaiyah Yaacob2*- 1Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China
- 2Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Malaysia
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Grounded in social exchange theory, this study surveys 505 preschool teachers across five Chinese provinces to examine how psychological contract violation shapes turnover intention via cognitive, affective, and behavioral organizational cynicism, and whether equity sensitivity strengthens these links. Using PLS-SEM with 5,000 bootstraps, we found that psychological contract violation shows positive effects on all organizational cynicism facets and on turnover intention. Cognitive organizational cynicism and affective cynicism partially mediate the psychological contract violation—turnover intention relationship, whereas behavioral organizational cynicism does not. Equity sensitivity positively moderates the psychological contract violation—turnover intention path. The model explains 50% of turnover intention variance. Findings suggest that distrust and emotional disillusion—rather than overt resistance—translate breached obligations into quitting intentions. Administrators should prioritize promise tracking, procedural justice, and emotional support, with targeted interventions for equity-sensitive staff. Limitations include cross-sectional design and self-report measures; future work should incorporate longitudinal turnover data.
Keywords: equity sensitivity, Organizational cynicism, preschool teacher, Psychological contract violation, turnover intention
Received: 28 Oct 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yang and Yaacob. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Norarbaiyah Yaacob
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