Abstract
This study explored the relationship among the emotional labor, psychological capital, and mental health of preschool teachers. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 411 preschool teachers in China. The results revealed the following: (1) One emotional labor strategy (Surface acting) had a significant negative effect on mental health, whereas two emotional labor strategies (expression of naturally felt emotions and deep acting) had significant positive effects. (2) The psychological capital of preschool teachers had a complete mediation on the relationship between expression of naturally felt emotions and mental health and between the deep acting and mental health.
Highlights
Mental health is crucial to quality of teachers
On the basis of the S-S-O model, this study proposed that emotional labor, psychological capital, and mental health can be respectively viewed as the stress, strain, and outcome in the model; emotional labor stimulates psychological capital in preschool teachers, which indirectly affects their mental health
Ranked in order from highest to lowest score, the strategies of emotional labor in preschool teachers were expression of naturally felt emotions [mean (M) = 3.654, standard deviation (SD) = 0.679], deep acting (M = 3.604, SD = 0.767), and surface acting (M = 2.692, SD = 0.785); this revealed that the preschool teachers more often used expression of naturally felt emotions and deep acting in their emotional labor at work, using surface acting less often
Summary
Mental health is crucial to quality of teachers. Teachers’ mental health has a strong effect on students and even the entire field of education (Kovess-Masfety et al, 2007; Harding et al, 2019). Good mental health refers to an individual having no mental illness and having positive emotions, psychology, or traits, enabling the individual to feel secure in their physical, psychological, and social relationships (Diener and Seligman, 2002; Seligman, 2003; Keyes, 2005). Young children have the specific traits of cognitive infantilism, poor emotional regulation, and low socialization, which are the reasons for the particularity and high pressure of preschool teachers’ work. Immense work pressure and challenges endangering the physical and mental health of preschool teachers affect the quality of life and level of commitment of these teachers to their work and may profoundly affect the development of young children (Buettner et al, 2016; Edward, 2016; Jeon et al, 2019). The factors affecting preschool teachers’ mental health and the mechanisms behind these effects must be investigated to determine how the mental health of preschool teachers can be improved and promote the integral development of preschool education
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