The impact of organizational support on turnover intentions among novice teachers in primary and secondary schools of less developed areas: the sequential mediating role of induction adaptation and job burnout

Imbalanced educational development is a matter of widespread concern across the globe, and novice teacher turnover is a common phenomenon in primary and secondary schools within less-developed regions. Identifying the factors contributing to these teachers' turnover intentions is crucial to addressing the challenge of educational inequality. To investigate the impact pathways and mechanisms of organizational support on turnover intentions among novice teachers in primary and secondary schools of less developed areas, data were collected from 520 primary and secondary school teachers within five years of joining the profession in 3 counties of Guizhou Province, China. The results indicate that 44% of novice teachers in primary and secondary schools have turnover intention at a medium level or above, and the potential problem of “unable to retain” is still more prominent. Organizational support significantly and positively predicted novice teachers' turnover intentions. Both induction adaptation and job burnout demonstrated independent and sequential mediating effects between organizational support and turnover intention. Notably, while induction adaptation directly and negatively predicted turnover intention (β = −0.346, p < 0.001), it exhibited a positive mediating effect ( b = 0.144) after controlling for the influence of job burnout. This suggests that induction adaptation may play a “double-edged sword” role in the relationship between organizational support and turnover intention. These findings help reconcile the debate regarding the cross-cultural applicability of the “dual-effect” of induction adaptation, providing new evidence and perspectives for both research on and interventions addressing novice teacher turnover.