Examining the Relationships Between Job Characteristics, Emotional Regulation and University Teachers' Well-Being: The Mediation of Emotional Regulation.

Jiying Han,Hongbiao Yin,Junju Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01727

Jiying Han, Hongbiao Yin + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01727

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Abstract

This study investigated the associations between university teachers’ emotional job demands, teaching support, and well-being, and examined the mediating effect of emotional regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. The results of a survey of 643 university teachers in mainland China indicated that emotional job demands and teaching support, which facilitated teachers’ use of reappraisal strategies, had desirable effects on their well-being. Reappraisal was beneficial to teachers’ well-being, and suppression was harmful. These findings support the mediation role of emotional regulation, and evidence the applicability of the JD-R model to a higher education context.

Highlights

The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model is a powerful framework explaining the relationships between job characteristics and employees’ performance and well-being (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007, 2014, 2017)
The study is an important step toward understanding mechanisms of university teacher well-being with an intervention of effective emotional regulation strategies
Half of our expected pathways were supported in the full structural equation modeling (SEM), and reappraisal was found to play a significant mediation role in the relationship between emotional job demands of university teaching (EJD-UT) and teacher well-being

Summary

Introduction

The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model is a powerful framework explaining the relationships between job characteristics and employees’ performance and well-being (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007, 2014, 2017). The model classified job characteristics into two categories which are negatively correlated with each other: job demands and job resources These two types of job characteristics are respectively assumed to have direct relationships with employees’ stress, motivation, health problems, and some organizational outcomes (Demerouti et al, 2001; Bakker et al, 2004). Teaching is an emotional endeavor (Chang, 2009), and it is important for teachers to regulate their emotions for effective classroom management and their well-being (Sutton et al, 2009; Yin, 2016). Based on the JDR model, some studies have explored the role of emotional regulation in teachers’ work (Sutton, 2004; Brackett et al, 2010) and the relationships between teachers’ emotional regulation, job University Teachers’ Emotional Regulation characteristics, and well-being among primary or secondary school teachers (Yin et al, 2016). There are few examinations of those relationships based on samples of university teachers

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