Effects of teachers' emotion regulation, burnout, and life satisfaction on student well-being

Abstract

Theoretical perspectives suggest the importance of teachers' emotion regulation skills, occupational health (e.g., burnout), and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) for students, yet few studies have empirically tested these associations. The current study tested whether teachers' cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, occupational burnout, and life satisfaction in the fall were related to the level, and trajectory across the school year, of three indicators of student well-being: student-reported positive outlook, student-reported emotional distress, and peer-reported prosocial behavior. Multilevel growth modeling was employed to examine data from 15 elementary teachers and their 320 students. Teachers' emotion regulation skills and life satisfaction were associated with students' well-being: when teachers used cognitive reappraisal, students reported low emotional distress; when teachers used expressive suppression, students reported a less positive outlook and peers reported few prosocial behaviors; teachers' life satisfaction was associated with high levels of prosocial behavior. Effects on the trajectory of student well-being were not significant.