Abstract
Background: A wealth of cross-sectional studies show consistent positive relationships between teachers’ happiness and self-esteem on one hand, and health, on the other, which calls for additional research in order to disentangle cause and effect between the two, and to find potential mediators.Aims: To investigate the mediating role played by job satisfaction between teachers’ happiness and self-esteem and their physical and mental health.Methods: A questionnaire was administered, containing questions about participants’ background information and the following scales: the Job Satisfaction Survey, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Physical and Mental Health Scales (SF12), and the Ivens Scale in the Adapted Version for Teachers: School Children’s Happiness Inventory (SCHI). The participants were 300 primary and middle school teachers from the Indian State of Kerala.Results: Job satisfaction fully mediates between both happiness and self-esteem, and health in teachers.Conclusion: Work is a relevant domain to promote teachers’ happiness and self-esteem, and their health, through job satisfaction.
Highlights
Happiness may be seen as the overall appreciation of one’s life-as-a-whole and several studies have proven that happiness promotes health; happiness has an effect on longevity, comparable to the effect of not smoking (Veenhoven, 2008)
Results show that that job satisfaction fully mediates the relation between happiness and health (Figure 1) [indirect effect = 0.368, SE = 0.052, 95% CI (0.2744, 0.4811)]; zero is not in the 95% confidence interval, and the indirect effect is significantly different from zero at p < 0.05
Results show that job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between teachers’ happiness and health, as well as the relationship between their self-esteem and health. These findings confirm the relationship between happiness and health, as well as the relevant role played by job satisfaction and self-esteem in this regard
Summary
Happiness may be seen as the overall appreciation of one’s life-as-a-whole and several studies have proven that happiness promotes health; happiness has an effect on longevity, comparable to the effect of not smoking (Veenhoven, 2008). The relevance of observing narrower aspects of SWB lies in the fact that deepening the understanding of SWB in particular domains may suggest ways of improving the general level of individuals’ SWB, intervening on specific conditions that promote SWB in a specific sphere of activity. In such a sense, SWB can be observed either as a general satisfaction with one’s own life or as individual satisfaction in a specific domain, as the work domain. A wealth of cross-sectional studies show consistent positive relationships between teachers’ happiness and self-esteem on one hand, and health, on the other, which calls for additional research in order to disentangle cause and effect between the two, and to find potential mediators
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
