Job load, job stress, and job exhaustion among Chinese junior middle school teachers: Job satisfaction as a mediator and teacher’s role as a moderator

Abstract

Job exhaustion is not uncommon among Chinese middle school teachers, but the key antecedents of job exhaustion and the underlying mechanisms in this historically underrepresented population remain poorly understood. This study examined the association between job demand and exhaustion, and tested the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of teachers’ role (i.e., homeroom versus subject) in this association. The two-wave, China Education Panel Survey data from 701 Chinese junior middle school teachers ( M age = 30.05 years old, SD age = 7.86; 78.75% females) were used. Primary hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. Results indicated that job load rather than job stress at Wave 1 was positively associated with job exhaustion at Wave 2 indirectly through its negative association with job satisfaction at Wave 2 only among subject teachers; in contrast, for homeroom teachers, job satisfaction at Wave 2 was the only factor that was identified to be negatively associated with job exhaustion at Wave 2. Notably, all significant associations emerged after controlling for a number of covariates, including job exhaustion at Wave 1. Such findings shed initial light on the complexity inherent within the phenomena of middle school teachers’ occupational health in a Chinese cultural context. Reducing teachers’ work load associated with long working hours and promoting teachers’ job satisfaction may be effective ways to relieve and prevent job exhaustion, especially for Chinese subject teachers.

Job Satisfaction Goes a Long Way: The Mediating Role of Teaching Satisfaction in the Relationship between Role Stress and Indices of Psychological Well-Being in the Time of COVID-19

“…In addition, difficulty adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols because of poor school infrastructure or limited access to personal protective equipment may generate feelings of hopelessness among teachers, and contribute to depression [ 50 ]. Moreover, being unable to manage online-learning scenarios and increased workloads may cause teachers to negatively appraise their work (e.g., indicating that they have failed as teachers), which may in turn precipitate feelings of depression [ 51 ].…”

“…Under these circumstances, role stress may have contributed to emotional exhaustion and burnout and thereby reduced the levels of life satisfaction and teaching satisfaction. Although we did not assess these variables, robust evidence [ 51 ] confirms the association between role stress and reduced job satisfaction and psychological well-being.…”

“…In addition, increased work-related responsibilities with no commensurate increase in income may lead to feelings of under-compensation among teachers, and result in decreased levels of teaching satisfaction. Finally, increased workloads are typically associated with reduced time for leisure activities and rest periods, and this may adversely affect the levels of life satisfaction [ 51 ].…”

Developing and validating a scale to measure teachers’ emotional labor strategy in classrooms

“…Third, emotion termination provides a new way for some teachers to deal with complex or depressing incidents. For instance, the online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic were found to heighten teachers’ emotional stress (Carroll et al, 2022 ; Zang et al, 2022 ) by occupying teachers’ private life, amplifying and recording their facial and bodily displays, and involving more social factors into class. Teachers became more cautious to prevent their emotion displays from violating display rules.…”

The dynamics of burnout among Slovenian primary school teachers over the school year in relation to their perceptions of various predictors of burnout in the school context

“…These can mitigate or amplify the effects of the stressor: Teachers interpretation of the situation (perception of and attitudes toward the stressor and their own resources for overcoming it) is important to the intensity and duration of the stressor (McCormick and Barnett, 2011;Parker et al, 2012). Psychological characteristics found to moderate the impact of external stressors in primary teachers include coping strategies (e.g., Herman et al, 2020), self-efficacy (e.g., Shakeel et al, 2022, teacher reflection (e.g., Košir et al, 2015), neuroticism (e.g., Goddard et al, 2006), striving and occupational commitment (e.g., Jepson and Forrest, 2006), psychological capital and flourishing (Freire et al, 2020), irrational beliefs (e.g., Bernard, 2016), and job satisfaction (e.g., Zang et al, 2022). It is also important what individuals do when they perceive high levels of stress: poor recovery experiences in the form of low leisure relaxation and non-restorative sleep partially mediated the relationship between effortreward imbalance and lower occupational efficiency (Gluschkoff et al, 2016).…”