How Kindergarten Principals’ Caring Leadership Shapes Teachers’ Work Passion: The Sequential Mediating Roles of Teacher Trust and Teacher Buoyancy

Against the backdrop of China’s national initiatives to strengthen the teaching workforce, fostering teachers’ work passion is essential not only for enhancing professional well-being but also for improving educational quality. This study examines how kindergarten principals’ caring leadership influences teachers’ work passion by testing the sequential mediating roles of teacher trust and teacher buoyancy. Using an independent quota sampling strategy, survey data were collected from 395 kindergarten teachers across China. The results indicate that principals’ caring leadership positively influences teachers’ work passion, but this effect is entirely indirect, operating through teacher trust, teacher buoyancy, and their sequential mediation, thereby confirming the “second-order effect” mechanism of leadership. Further mediation analyses reveal that the independent mediating effect of teacher trust (72.47%) is substantially stronger than that of teacher buoyancy (15.15%), while the sequential mediation pathway from teacher trust to teacher buoyancy accounts for 11.73% of the total effect. Overall, this study advances understanding of psychological mechanisms linking caring leadership to teachers’ passion and offers actionable insights for kindergarten principals seeking to refine leadership practices and foster sustained teacher engagement and enthusiasm.