An exploration of EFL teachers’ job satisfaction in the light of stress coping strategies and emotional intelligence

Abstract

The present study sought to explore the relationship between EFL teachers’ job satisfaction, emotional intelligence (EQ), and stress coping strategies. To this end, 188 EFL teachers were selected from private institutes and high schools of Mashhad. The participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: Teaching Satisfaction Scale (TSS), Teacher’s EQ Scale (WLEIS), and Stress Coping Strategy Scale (CISS). WLEIS contained four factors: self-emotion appraisal (SEA), others’ emotion appraisal (OEA), use of emotion (UOE), and regulation of emotion (ROE). The CISS focuses on three major dimensions of coping in response to a stressful situation: Task-oriented, Emotion-oriented, and Avoidance-oriented coping. Task-oriented coping refers to responses directed at either problem resolution or cognitively reframing the meaning of the stressful situation. Emotion-oriented coping refers to responses directed toward oneself rather than the problem at hand. An individual using this coping style may respond to a difficult situation by becoming emotionally distressed or engaging in fantasy activities. Avoidance-oriented coping refers to responses designed to avoid dealing with the stressful situation, such as distracting oneself with other situations (e.g., shopping) or through interacting with other persons. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to analyze the data. The results demonstrated that among the coping strategies, task is predicted positively and significantly by job satisfaction and job satisfaction had no role in adopting emotion and avoidance coping strategies. EQ had a positive influence on the adaptation of task strategy, a negative impact on emotion strategy, and no role in avoidance strategy. EQ also predicted job satisfaction positively and significantly. It implies, teachers who had higher levels of EQ were more satisfied with their profession. It was also found that job satisfaction has the highest correlation with UOE followed by SEA. Task had the highest correlation with ROE followed by UOE.