Are schools with a better work environment better at retaining teachers?: A repeated cross-sectional study examining schools’ organisational and social risk factors and teacher retention

This longitudinal study examines the relationship of psychosocial safety climate and psychosocial work factors with teacher turnover rates at 12- and 24-months follow-ups using objective turnover data from 14 schools in two Swedish municipalities. The study used an open cohort repeated cross-sectional research design and merged teachers’ self-reported survey data on psychosocial safety climate and psychosocial work environment factors, which were aggregated to the school level, during the first school year (n = 440) and in the second school year (n = 406), to investigate their associations with annual school-level turnover data for each school year. Given the micro–macro data situation and the few higher-level groups (n = 14 schools), school-level data were analysed using disaggregation and hierarchical regression. The findings show that differences in teacher turnover between schools were mainly explained by municipal effects and labour market dynamics rather than differences in schools’ psychosocial safety climate and psychosocial work factors.