• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.122-131
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• 2019

This study analyzed the moderating effect according to school levels in the structural relationship between stressful interpersonal relationships at work and rumination in teachers' depression. For this study, a research model was formed based on theoretical understandings and a literature review. The researchers surveyed 811 teachers at primary and secondary schools to measure scales of depression, rumination, and stress in interpersonal relationships at work. Primary education and secondary education were the grouping variables for the school levels, and the collected data was analyzed using multi-group structural equation modeling. Also, to affirm equivalence between the two models, the data was investigated using the constrained model of measurement equivalence. The research results verified the equivalence between the two models and the moderating effect by comparing the path coefficients of the two models on the assumption of equivalence constraint. As a result, the moderating effect according to school levels was revealed on the path from stressful interpersonal relationships at work to depression. Grounded on this analysis, stress in interpersonal relationships at work mediates the impact of rumination in teachers' depression. In addition, the research revealed that the moderating effects on stressful interpersonal relationships at work varied according to school level, and the moderating effect of stress in interpersonal relationships at work affected middle school teachers but not primary school teachers.