High turnover among early care and education (ECE) teachers threatens workforce stability and may have negative implications for ECE program quality and children’s early learning and development. Previous research limited to specific regions or small samples has linked low compensation, workplace support, and mental well-being to teacher’ turnover intentions. However, these associations have not yet been examined within nationally representative data. This preregistered study examined the extent to which compensation, workplace support, and depressive symptoms were associated with turnover intention among a nationally representative sample of center-based ECE teachers. It also explore whether depressive symptoms moderated the links between compensation and workplace support and turnover intention. The study relied on data from the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Workforce Questionnaire ( = 3,379). Weighted binary logistic regression analyses were conducted, as well as tests of two interaction effects between depressive symptoms and workplace support and between depressive symptoms and hourly wage. Results demonstrated that greater workplace support was associated with lower odds of turnover intention, and more depressive symptoms was associated with greater odds of turnover intention. Hourly wage was not significantly associated with turnover intention. Moreover, we did not find evidence of depressive symptoms moderating the associations between workplace support or hourly wage and turnover intention. Ultimately, the findings from this study suggest that workplace support and mental well-being may be particularly important to target to improve retention in the ECE workforce.
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